This is it - A Gendo 2023 movie watching thread

[Gendo]

Getting desperate for thread titles, in my 8th straight year of tracking every movie I watch. Still, I really like that these threads exist, even if they're barely seen by anyone.

1. Logan Lucky (2007) - Great! An interesting spin on the comedy/heist genre, with likeable characters and really good humor. I really liked how all the details of the heist were carefully thought out and shown. There were a couple details which didn't fully make sense, but that doesn't matter much.

[Raxivace]

Logan Lucky is probably the last Soderbergh I liked. I think its the first time Craig really tried that Southern accent too that he's really put to use in Knives Out and Glass Onion.

[Gendo]

I haven't seen any Soderbergh he made after Logan Lucky. I haven't seen much in general; I vaguely remember Traffic being good and Solaris being bad. And I had a lot to say about Side Effects when I saw that a couple years ago.

2. The Northman (2022) - Robert Eggers is a pretty amazing filmmaker, that much is clear. I didn't care all that much for the characters or the story... but the visuals were simply stunning. The action scenes consisted of great long-takes, and the backgrounds and scenery were all absolutely beautiful. The music was excellent, and really helped draw you into the world. What prevented me from completely loving it as a whole really was just the characters and story. Amleth isn't a character I wanted to root for, though I certainly wasn't rooting against him either. Nicole Kidman was fantastic, but didn't have enough screen time.

[Gendo]

3. Circle (2015) - Not "The Circle". I watched this a week ago and am finally writing about it. Someone here recommended this I'm pretty sure. Anyway, it's pretty good. At the very least it gets extra points for being unique, and it has some really interesting visuals and such. The story itself is good, though I felt like at least at the beginning, the characters were all way too unrealistic in their behaviors. I'm not sure if it was the acting or the dialogue, but no one felt like they were actually reacting to what it would be like to suddenly find yourself in such a situation. Cube did much better at that. They just adapted way too quickly to what was happening and jumped right into playing "the game".

And then once people started really making their cases, a lot of the characters showed themselves to be silly caricatures of types of people... the cop was racist, the minister was giving clichéd platitudes, the black guy was playing the race card... just some really low-effort character development. But later when they started to break into factions, I started to enjoy it more. By the end, it was just like watching a fun game of Werewolf, and actually had some good suspense about who was going to come out on top.

I read Raxi's comments about the pro-life thing... not sure I agree. I mean, yes the movie states that the pregnant woman's baby counted as a participant in the game, and thus counts as a person, in the eyes of the random unseen aliens. But the guy wasn't the villain because he wasn't willing to defend the rights of the unborn... he was a villain because he manipulated the game perfectly to his advantage even at the cost of murdering a child and a pregnant woman, and movie watching audiences, like half the characters playing the game, felt that pregnant women and children should be given more sympathy/priority to survive. So the fact that the fetus counted didn't come across to me as the filmmakers really trying to make a conservative or pro-life statement. The question of pro-life vs pro-choice is a question of what rights our society should give to which people when those rights are in conflict. The aliens didn't care about such things. It was simply "hey, there's still more than 1 lifeform in this room, therefore the game isn't over yet". It was just a silly little twist, not some political statement. I think it's giving the filmmakers too much credit there.

4. John Wick (2014) - Not bad. Some entertaining stuff, and generally really well-shot action scenes. Not a lot of depth to it, but still fun.

R1. A Quiet Place (2018) - I like how much this movie leans into the "being quiet" thing. It does a lot with very little spoken dialogue. The world building is great; really giving you a sense of what it is to live in those circumstances. Not really scary, but has a fair bit of good suspense.

5. A Quiet Place Part II (2020) - Unfortunately it seems to have given up on trying to lean heavily into the whole quiet thing... characters talk out loud way more than they do in the first one. It like making a no-talking movie was too much effort, so they found lame excuses for characters to be able to safely talk. And then there's all sorts of noises made beyond talking, with no aliens immediately attacking as a consequence. I did still mostly enjoy it though. Cillian Murphy is always great, and this was a different sort of role for him.

6. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) - Not as good as the first... I didn't like that the action wasn't driven by personal reasons here. It was just business. That being said, the action itself was pretty great. The opening scene with him getting his car back was especially awesome. And I did enjoy learning more about the underworld that they belong to; it's a really fun concept.

[Gendo]

7. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) - Yeah I added the year because the title already has a dash in it and it looked weird. This was the best of the 3! The most in-depth story, with loads and loads of world-building. It had a handful of hilarious lines, and overall took itself less seriously than the others. And, as expected, the action was just so much fun and well-done.

[Gendo]

R2. Speed (1994) - Definitely holds up as great example of fun 90s action. A fairly unique premise, a great villain, and some intense but over-the-top ridiculous action.

8. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) - I knew this would be terrible, and yeah it was just what I expected. Shame that Willem Dafoe's villain couldn't save it. It was on the verge of being so bad it's fun, but not quite. I did really enjoy that they brought back the Jaguar Owner from the first film, though. That was a delightful surprise.

9. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) - It lived up to the hype! So glad to see Daniels getting more recognition after how much I loved Swiss Army Man. This movie basically told the same core story, but was different in every way. Also, it had some major Evangelion vibes to it. Certain scenes felt like they could have been alternate takes of End of Evangelion! A quick Google search tells me that I'm not at all alone in thinking this either. I was expecting a fun kung-fu movie about the multiverse; had no idea it was going to be so deep in its themes and story. Pretty much every aspect of the film worked perfectly.

[Gendo]

10. About Time (2013) - Excellent! A really heartwarming story, with some great performances. The music was particularly great; both the theme music and the various songs used. Despite being a movie featuring time travel, everything felt so genuine and realistic. I hate when romantic comedies have plots or scenarios that just center around some really contrived thing that would never happen in real life because people don't act the way they act in the movie. But there was none of that here; the people felt real.

[Gendo]

Quite late on my writeups here; these weren't all that recent:

11. The Harvey Girls (1946) - Good music and excellent set design and costuming. I could just sit and watch Ray Bolger dancing forever; I have no idea how he does it. Young Angela Lansbury always looks weird to me; only because I'm so used to seeing her old.

12. The Black Phone (2021) - There's a lot going on here. It gave me major Stephen King vibes, and then I found out that the book was written by Stephen King's son. Between the kidnapping, the psychic girl, and the ghosts of previous kidnapping victims, it almost felt like 3 separate stories happening together. It wasn't all that scary; barely qualifies as horror. But it was interesting, and overall mostly good. I probably wouldn't have even bothered seeing it if not for Ethan Hawke. Sadly he doesn't get all that much screen time.

13. Midway (2019) - I only saw this out of a morbid curiosity of how someone like Roland Emmerich would do a serious war movie. I generally like Emmerich, even the ones that other people don't like. But as expected, a serious war movie just isn't for him. It's not that it was bad; it just was lacking in anything great. The visuals and action were fine, but there was no meaningful character development for anyone; all the characters were just forgettable. Some of the war strategy going on was interesting, but there was no heart or anything to get emotional about.

[Lord_Lyndon]

Sorry I'm late with my response, Gendo.

I haven't seen Speed films in more that 15 years. I don't remember much except that the first one was really good.
I also saw all three John Wick films that came out so far. I had quite the opposite reaction to you. The second one was by far my favourite, and it is one of my favourite action films of all time. The first and the third were okay I guess.

[Gendo]

Although the action in John Wick 2 was excellent, I think my biggest problem with it was just the main plot; the action wasn't driven by anything personal, he was just doing his job.

R3. Machete (2010) - Still a whole lot of fun. There's so much going on in this film, and it all just worked together wonderfully. The supporting cast is all fun to watch, with a particularly entertaining, although little-seen, De Niro. I also love the concept that this is a spin-off of a kid's movie. I mean why shouldn't a single shared universe contain content for audiences of all ages?

[Gendo]

14. Machete Kills (2013) - Ugh, I can't believe how far it fell from the first one. I don't know exactly what Rodriguez was thinking; all he had to do was more of what made the first one so good. Instead it just felt like a half-assed parody of itself. I'm not opposed to the concept of things getting bigger and sillier, but there's such a thing as too far. Sure the first one had it's goofiness, but it also had a real story underneath it all. This just didn't feel like it cared enough to try and make a good film.

[Gendo]

15. Dixiana (1930) - Some good music, some funny routines, and some uncomfortable 1930's racism. About what I expected. Nothing too memorable, but not bad.

16. Stripes (1981) - Very stereotypical 80s comedy. Bill Murray is great like always, and it has a lot of great cast members in addition to him. The movie got better as it went on; by the end I was really enjoying it.

[Gendo]

17. Dressed to Kill (1946) - My favorite Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film so far. An interesting mystery that felt more like a classic detective story. It did sort of feel like in the end Holmes just made a random lucky guess and happened to be right. But still overall entertaining.

18. Eloise at the Plaza (2003) - I didn't know anything about the Eloise books or character before this. It's not bad, for a made-for-tv children's film. The main character isn't all that good, as far as 6-year-olds in kids movies go. But it has enough entertaining hijinx, and some actual good plot.

[Gendo]

19. Millions (2004) - The last unseen Danny Boyle movie in my collection. Not quite sure how to feel about this one. There's a lot of neat visuals; and the "Boyle style" is really dialed up here. But it's weird to see him doing what's basically a children's fairy tale. It starts of super light and whimsical, although gets bizarrely dark in the second half. It also had fantastic music.

[Raxivace]

I didn't think Danny Boyle completists existed tbh. I mean I don't hate the guy or anything but I've never known anyone to care about watching his stuff as much as you.

[Gendo]

I'm not; he has done lots of movies I don't own. This was just the last one I owned but hadn't seen yet. I've mentioned before I have a very love/hate thing going on with his films. Yesterday is the only one that I think was truly great.

[Gendo]

Man March has not been good for movie watching. So far behind.

20. Glorifying the American Girl (1929) - The film itself wasn't all that interesting, but I did learn some neat Hollywood history stuff from watching it, about the Ziegfeld Follies and "pre-code" Hollywood. The version I have is unfortunately the edited version that does in fact meet the Hays Code.

[Gendo]

21. Stage Door Canteen (1943) - As I've said before, Ray Bolger makes everything great. He wasn't in it very much, though. But had a lot of good musical numbers, and something of a story to tie them together. Also learned some interesting history about the real-life Stage Door Canteen and the American Theatre Wing.

[Gendo]

22. Terror by Night (1946) - Another Rathbone Holmes mystery. This one was more fun, with a lighter tone and some amusing farce. The mystery was fairly straightforward, without a bunch of examining of clues and such. The setting itself was great; being confined to a single location with a very limited collection of suspects.

23. Tarzan (1999) - Overall pretty great. Beautiful animation; moreso with the backgrounds and scenery than the character designs. They did lot of clever/unique thing with the action scenes; especially during the baboon chase sequence. The music was fantastic, Phil Collins is generally great, but they made his stuff fit in surprisingly well. The story itself lacked depth, although it did have some good themes of being forced to choose between worlds.

[Gendo]

24. Pendragon: Sword of His Father (2008) - Given the right context, this was pretty good. That context being that it was made by a family of non-professional filmmakers. Written by, directed by, edited by, and staring all members of this family. They did have some actual funding; it wasn't filmed in their backyard or anything. The worst part was the acting; it was quite obvious that none of them were professional actors. But as a whole it was entertaining enough. It's a Christian film, with a primary intend to spread the message of Christianity. But it was worked in better than a lot of other Christian films. Not nearly as good as something like I Can Only Imagine though.

lol I forgot to name the film. Edited.

[Gendo]

R4. Being John Malkovich (1999) - This one is out of order, because I forgot to write about it after I saw it a couple weeks ago. I've always loved this film, just for it's pure strangeness. I think some other Kaufman movies probably have more to offer in terms of really saying something, but that's ok. It's just overall hilarious.

25. Fiddler on the Roof (1971) - Amazing. I already knew I'd love it going in; been a fan of the music since I was a kid, and I feel like I've seen a version of the stage play, and this easily met my high expectations. The musical numbers were excellently choreographed. Topol was simply a joy to watch in every scene. And the story is just beyond great. The music itself took some getting used to, because I've listened to the Original Broadway Cast Recording so many times, so everything sounded a bit weird and off, just because it's not what I was used to. But I think it might actually be better.

R5. The Big Lebowski (1998) - Maybe the film I've seen more than any other film in my life. It just never seems to get old. The entire cast, especially John Goodman, really give it their all.

R6. The Parent Trap (1961) - I saw this one several times as a kid. And I actually remembered most of it. It's silly and fun. It drags on in some parts; could be shorter. But a really cute story.

[Gendo]

With Fiddler, I reached my milestone of under 200 movies owned that I've never seen. That milestone lasted about 16 hours, until I bought a couple Scorsese films I haven't seen; Hugo and New York, New York.

[Gendo]

R7. My Cousin Vinny (1992) - Seen this many, many times. It very much holds up. The acting is superb.

26. The Parent Trap II (1986) - Nothing like a made-for-TV sequel 25 years after the original. This had some cute ideas, and even cute execution, but the overall heart and quality of the original just wasn't there. Apparently there's a part 3 and part 4 also... doubt I'll be seeing them anytime soon.

R8. Fences (2016) - Still really love Denzel's performance here. The opening scene is so very engaging. Not sure if there's a lot going on to the story itself, really. Maybe it's trying to say that Denzel was a complicated and flawed person, or maybe it was saying that he was just a horrible husband and father, really hard to say which one the intention was. But it's still great.

[Gendo]

27. The Monuments Men (2014) - An interesting story worth learning about, and a great cast. But other than that, just an ok movie. Not a lot of great stuff that stands out among the many other great WWII movies out there.

[Gendo]

I just suddenly remembered that I rewatched xXx a few months ago. And I have no idea if it was this year or last year. Oh well.

[Gendo]

28. Top Hat (1935) - Some really funny moments, and some great dancing. Not as much dancing as I’d have liked to see from Fred Astaire, however. And some of the plot points and jokes just felt old. I know that’s a weird complaint from a movie almost 90 years old; it’s not the movie's fault that a huge number of movies that would be made over the next 90 years would reuse a lot of that stuff. As a whole, I liked it.

29. Private Buckaroo (1942) - Hilarious. Shemp Howard was a comedic genius. As far as it being a WWII military propaganda film, it was a bit more in your face than other ones I’ve seen, especially towards the end. But it was quite enjoyable, and far better quality from most of the other films in that old musicals set that I’ve been watching through.

R9. Baby Driver (2017) - I liked it better this time. Still not nearly as much as Scott Pilgrim or The World's End, but it has a lot of good qualities. The music integration with the action is amazing, and the performances are all great. The main plot is still a little thin, though I didn’t mind that as much this time around. And the character of Debora still bothers me; she’s just really underdeveloped and almost more of a prop than a person. Still, worth watching just for the music.

[Gendo]

30. Aloha (2015) - It wasn't bad, but felt a bit weird and awkward as a whole. First off, Emma Stone seemed all wrong for that part. Then, there seemed to be much more chemistry between Cooper and McAdams than Cooper and Stone. By the end of the film, it felt kind of like a standard romcom between Cooper and Stone, yet the movie wasn't establishing it that way. It's weird that the romcom trope of "dumb misunderstanding causes a fight between the romantic leads" was still there, but it was about a secret evil plan to send weapons into space. The best parts were the interactions between Cooper and Krasinski. And I really liked the music.

31. Keeping the Faith (2000) - Pretty good.Strong performances from Norton and Stiller; and it gave a unique twist on typical romcoms. The friendship between the 2 males was great, and felt very genuine. I would have liked it if religion played a bit larger a part in the story; or more specifically how their different beliefs affected their relationship.

32. Smile (2022) - Actually scary, which is something missing from a lot of horror movies. I think I would have called it brilliant if it had been made before The Babadook, Hereditary, and It Follows; all which touch on similar ideas. The allegory of trauma as a monster would have been better with more subtlety; same goes for the themes of poor responses to mental health issues in general. The biggest flaw really is the amount that it felt like a retreat of the previously mentioned films. But it was still a good time; in the way a horror film should be.

33. Nope (2022) - Hard to give a direct opinion about this one. Very well made; as one would expect from Peele. Excellent performances from everyone, and well-written characters that make you want to see more of them. But the story was just weird. For all it's deep undertones and themes, it ultimately felt like Tremors in the sky. And when it felt like it was trying to be a horror movie, it wasn't particularly scary. Though was generally creepy and suspenseful. Probably merits another watch.

[Raxivace]

I thought Daniel Kaluuya was actually kinda bad in Nope tbh, something I never though I'd say about one of his performances before watching. His mumbling and moping and such was completely unconvincing to me.

[Gendo]

Well for sure he was outshone by Keke Palmer; but I didn’t think it was bad.

[Gendo]

So I sort of watched a movie. Had a long drive home last night and no audio book, so I thought "what movie do I have that's more dialog than action, and I've seen enough times that I can just listen to it and not need to watch it?" The answer, of course, is The Founder. Listened to the whole thing. Not counting it as a movie I watched, though. Interestingly enough, I also listen to the soundtrack of Hamilton all the time (including during the first long drive on the same trip). And since Hamilton's dialog is all in song, the soundtrack is just the entire movie/play. And yet, when listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, people don't generally think of it in terms of "listening to the movie".

[Gendo]

Boy has it been a bad month for movie watching. A bad year, really. Free time had all been spent binging That '70s Show. At least it still counts as an unwatched thing I've gotten off my list. And now the next long amount of time will be spent on all Zelda. Anyway, I did rewatch a few things, though while multitasking.

R10. Good Will Hunting (1997) - An old favorite; still really holds up. Robin Williams absolutely kills it.

R11. Vivarium (2020) - I think I liked this a little more this time. Seems like a weird thing to say, but it's biggest flaw is that it's not better. By which I mean that it just feels like it could have been a really great movie, given the premise, themes, atmosphere. Instead it's just good.

R12. A Beautiful Mind (2001) - Excellent. This might be James Horner's best work.

[Gendo]

The sad fact is that I'm going to be watching almost nothing for a while due to Tears of the Kingdom. But still re-watching some stuff just while trying to fall asleep at night.

R13. It Follows (2014) - A horror movie that works better than it should. The premise is really stupid. But it has some decently scary moments, and the score is excellent. It's overall made well and is pretty good.

[Gendo]

I have still yet to watch any movies in the past several months, except the couple random rewatches mentioned. I did however purchase a huge amount of stuff for my collection a couple days ago. Among them were included a couple films that I know nothing about other than have heard them repeatedly referred to among the great films of all-time.

In the Mood for Love (Criterion Collection)
Three Colors Trilogy

Also found my latest "white whale" (previous one was Upstream Color); Big Night. Been on my wish list for so long. New white whale is Searching for Bobby Fischer.

[Lord_Lyndon]

In the Mood for Love (Criterion Collection)
Three Colors Trilogy

In the Mood for Love was directed by Wong Kar-wai. It is generally considered as his best film. Like I said in my thread a week ago, he is my favourite director of all time. And while I liked 'Mood', it actually wouldn't even make my top 5 Wong Kar-wai films.
Little info about Three Colors Trilogy. It was directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, who is considered as one of the greatest directors of all time. Names of the films are Blue-White-Red. Red is the one that is the most beloved by critics and regular viewers.

[Gendo]

Yeah, Red is the one that I've heard the most about, I think. Haven't seen anything by Wong Kar-wai, though like I said not too long ago, my foreign film experience is generally greatly lacking. I did also pick up Jean de Florette + Manon des Sources to add to my foreign film collection, though. We actually watched those in high school French class.

[Gendo]

Watched some old comedies.

34. Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) - Hilarious. I really haven't seen Lucille Ball in much outside of a couple I Love Lucy episodes. Not much to say about it; it has a lot of tropes I've seen a bunch before, but does them well.

35. The Gazebo (1959) - A dark comedy reminded me a bit of Arsenic and Old Lace. Overall also very funny.

36. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) - As someone just starting the process of building a house, this was relatable and scary. Had some quite funny moments. The whole "love triangle" thing was a bit weird and not necessary, but it had a lot of good heartwarming bits as well. And Cary Grant is always fun to watch.

[Gendo]

37. Fifth Avenue Girl (1939) - Kind of weird, in a mostly good way. The weirdness made for some humorous moments, but a sort of awkward humor. Ginger Rogers never reacts to anything like a normal person, and it's not clear what they were even going for with her character. And then you had lots of weird references to capitalism vs communism, where an actual message or theme is never made clear. But as a whole, it was fun and entertaining.

38. Having Wonderful Time (1938) - Another Ginger Rogers film, and also quite weird. The romance and conflict all feels very forced, and is resolve very suddenly. Not a lot of funny parts in this one, outside of a couple random Red Skelton bits placed throughout.

[Gendo]

39. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - Pretty good. Fun music; including a couple songs I'd heard before but didn't know where they were from. Obviously Judy Garland is great. The overall story was interesting.

40. Knock at the Cabin (2023) - Good, though could have been better. Excellent performances, especially from Bautista. But all 4 of the "horsemen" were excellent; they really sold the notion of being more afraid of what was happening than their victims. Good suspense for most of it. My only real problem was the ending. There were really only 3 possibilities: 1) It turns out they are making it all up. 2) They are telling the truth and the family decides to let the world end. 3) They are telling the truth and the family decides to save the world. I felt like it ended with my least preferred of the 3 options.

41. Unknown (2011) - Surprisingly good. A really great mystery; I had no idea where it was going. The twist felt clever. It's almost a spoiler to say what movies it reminded me of; by the end, it really reminded me of a mix between Total Recall, The Bourne Identity, and Salt.

R14. Eraser (1996) - Fun, silly, and stupid 90s Schwarzenegger action.

[Lord_Lyndon]

39. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - Pretty good. Fun music; including a couple songs I'd heard before but didn't know where they were from. Obviously Judy Garland is great. The overall story was interesting.

Couldn't agree more. This was just a wonderful and charming film. I love Judy Garland.

R14. Eraser (1996) - Fun, silly, and stupid 90s Schwarzenegger action.

One of the films from my childhood. Pretty good in my opinion.

[Gendo]

42. Bells Are Ringing (1960) - Another Vincente Minnelli musical. Loved it. Very catchy music, and lots of great characters.

[Gendo]

After having spend 280 hours playing TOTK (which could have been literally 100 movies instead...), I watched a movie!

43. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) - This was good, maybe even really good. But I don't think it quite lived up to the first 2. But that was a really high bar. This had a lot of good stuff, but also a lot of things I felt was lacking. I didn't like that Rocket was basically just a MacGuffin throughout the first 2/3 of the film. The backstory scenes were all good, but also largely irrelevant to the actual events taking place in the present. They explained who the villain was, but that's it. And although it was clearly intended to be an emotional powerhouse, I felt like I got more emotion out of Rocket's character in Vol. 2 during his brief conversation with Yondu. But overall, the action, dialogue, and humor was all great. It really felt like the humor was more naturally integrated into scenes than it often does with the MCU.

[Gendo]

44. Love Is News (1937) - A bunch of amusing hijinks; nothing too special.

45. Brigadoon (1954) - Great sets and interesting shot compositions. Apparently they were using a new CinemaScope technology which forced their hand in certain ways. It was also weirdly noticeable when the camera would pan around and things would get distorted. But pretty good music, and great costumes.

[Gendo]

R15. Equilibrium (2002) - This mostly holds up, but not completely. It's commentary is laughably over-the-top, and it would benefit from some subtlety. The performances don't really sell the world; I don't believe that any characters aren't feeling. But it's a cool movie, and a lot of fun. The action as a whole is good, and the final big gun battle is great.

[Gendo]

R16. Amadeus (1984) - Excellent; seen it a few times. Seems almost silly to point out how good the music is when the music was all written by basically the actual greatest musician of all time, but man is it good. F. Murray Abraham is also really fantastic. I watched theatrical cut, which actually is pretty different from the director's cut I was used to. Apparently there's some strong opinions out there on both sides defending each as the better version. I definitely prefer director's cut. It really changes Salieri's character into more of a villain, but I always thought that was the point. In the theatrical cut, it's almost confusing as to what he actually did to harm Mozart; a lot of it is left out. And it makes basically no sense at all when Constanze hates him so much at the end. The director's cut has important context for that.

[Raxivace]

When I was watching through the Best Picture Winners I was kinda dreading Amadeus since I figured it would yet another stuff Awards-bait period piece, but no it turned out to be really excellent movie.

I think I've only seen the Director's Cut. Is the Theatrical Cut even available anymore? I was kinda under the impression that had been memory-holed more or less.

[Gendo]

I watched TC on Prime (though it left Prime at the end of September). I think physical media only put out the DC.

[Gendo]

46. True Romance (1993) - Great, but perhaps overhyped. I've heard from so many people how this is one of their all-time favorites, and that was a high bar that had been set. The cast was amazing. So many big names in tiny parts. Gary Oldman really stole the whole thing, despite barely being in it. But all the characters were really just enjoyable to watch.

[Gendo]

With TOTK done; I'm actually watching movies!

47. The Kid (2000) - Cute enough for what it was. It got better as it went on; the start was kind of sloppy. Bruce Willis' character seemed like he was meant to be either a Scrooge or Phil Connors type character, but it's like they couldn't decide how far to take it; he mostly just came off as a normal guy. And Willis kind of seemed disinterested in the role, if that makes any sense. But by the end is was a fairly heartwarming story and worked pretty well.

48. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) - Quite good. Guy Pearce especially nailed the role of the villain. The story and scenery were great. I was expecting much more of a cautionary tail about revenge; I haven't read the book but always thought that's what it was. In the movie, revenge is just the plot, it didn't feel so much like it had a theme of the dangers of being consumed with revenge. Aside from one speech from Luis Guzmán trying to convince Edmond to give up his quest for revenge, it never felt like revenge was portrayed as ruining his life. And in the end it all just works out fine for him.

49. Pretty Woman (1990) - A sweet story; one that avoids the clichés of romcoms that I hate so much. There was good chemistry between the leads; though it took time to build up to that. It did feel a bit too all nicely packaged up considering the actual realities of the world that Roberts' character came from. Like other than being somewhat ashamed of her past, it wasn't really relevant to the story outside of her just being someone from a very different social circle than Gere.

[Raxivace]

Haven't seen that adaptation of Monte Cristo, but reading up on it sounds very different from the novel I read. Still the cautionary aspects were more about his revenge ruining his soul (I'm guessing this film version leaves out the thing about Edmond's scheme accidentally leading to the death of a child, and how that shakes him) rather than his material life or whatever- he's far too unfathomably rich for that to be in any particular danger.

[Gendo]

Oh yeah, that was definitely not in the movie. There is a fair amount of dialogue about his faith, but mostly he turns away and "loses his soul" as a result of bitterness and hopelessness from his time in prison, not from his quest for revent afterwards. There is a line he says when he finally goes to kill Fernand about "I'm a count, not a saint", but that's the closest it really gets to saying that he's sinning by enacting revenge. Well, that and how he's told more than once that vengeance is supposed to be left up to God.