I watched Midnight Madness. I may go into more detail later, but ... a generous 3/10. Just painful.
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I watched Midnight Madness. I may go into more detail later, but ... a generous 3/10. Just painful.
Imagine a couple of the writers for the utterly unwatchable sitcom 2 Broke Girls decided to write a caper comedy for kids. But, in order to appeal to the adults in the audience, they also decided to add in weirdly inappropriate sexual humor. I think this is the best description for Midnight Madness. All of the characters are drawn in the broadest strokes possible. These aren't just exaggerated performances, these are living caricatures. There are a couple of those in the comparable Scavenger Hunt, but in Midnight Madness, everybody outside of the five leads at the film's core are living cartoons. Stephen Furst's entire team are so exaggerated that they quickly become irritating. Stephen Furst himself plays a cartoonishly evil "fat buffoon," whose desire to eat all the time leads to his team's loss. His team is literally made up of: his constantly nagging girlfriend, a friend who smirks and revels in every one of Furst's failures, an idiot nicknamed Barf who spends 90% of the movie looking slack-jawed and laughing like Butthead, and Blade, a mute Hispanic man who always has a switchblade out. The other teams in the movie don't fare any better. Eddie Deezen does his usual nerd thing and actually gets the only legitimate laugh in the entire movie -- a moment where his character gets hit in the face with a tomato. I assure you, the gag works only because of his reaction and timing and not because of the writing in the scene. It's also early enough in the movie to give you some false hope that the rest of this trainwreck might be enjoyable.
Every line of dialogue feels like a reject from a Full House episode. There's an attempt as a human story here, too, with David Naughton's character making a familial connection with his younger brother, played by a very young Michael J. Fox. Naughton also has a love interest that "develops" throughout the movie. But both of these side-plots feel very unearned in the end. Both of them rely on the characters having convenient epiphanies rather than gradually learning throughout the story. Naughton coming around to love his brother is literally a scene where he drives away and leaves the movie for a minute or two, and then returns after having complete 180-degree change of heart off-screen. Guh.
But, I think the worst part about it is just how irritating every single character in the movie is. Characters who are supposed to be likeable are utterly punchable. I hated all of them. I wanted everybody to lose. I kept hoping they would suddenly find themselves in the movie Miracle Mile, with atomic blasts going off all around L.A., but alas, it was not meant to be.
2/10
I'm done being generous to this garbage heap.
**Edit 360-degree to 180-degree
I like Kiki very much overall, but two pretty insignificant things really bother me for some reason. First, it's annoying to me how rude she is for no reason to that one really nice kid. Second, she's super reckless around streets/traffic. It's one of a few I've only seen once -- maybe it'll move up the list one day.
I have seen and liked Cagliostro, but haven't gotten my hands on Gauche. I didn't count them (or Horus: Prince of the Sun, which I love) because they were released before Ghibli was founded, but then again that is also true of Nausicaa...
And The Red Turtle is a good movie that doesn't feel like a proper Ghibli release to me, probably because it's not anime. It'd be somewhere right smack dab in the middle of my list, right around Grave of the Fireflies.
Love seeing Kaguya so high on your list. Hate seeing The Cat Returns so low. You must hate cats!
Nah, I love cats. I just find Cat Returns kinda dull, at least for Ghibli standards, and kinda forgettable. It just doesn't feel like it has that richness in characterization of other films. It's not a bad movie and I don't really dislike it. It's just that Ghibli's standards are pretty high.
Also, It's the first time I've heard of Horus: Prince of the Sun, so I'll look out for it.
Watched my first Taylor Sheridan film last night with Wind River, and it was phenomenal.
Everyone is fantastic in it, beautiful dialogue, and a conclusion that is equal parts heart wrenching and hopeful.
Still digesting it, but initial feelings and enthusiasm have me wanting to rank it with some of the GOAT's of its type (Memories of Murder, Gone Baby Gone, etc.)
"She ran six miles in the snow."
Very cool, I will check it out. Thank you!
I always liked Eric Bana. Wish he had a stronger career.
Same. Hes underrated imo.
Chopper is worth seeing just for his performance.
I liked it too, which is why I'm going to repost my old review of it in here now:
I thought that was a very decent flick. Very.
How the fuck have I managed to watch four Shawn Levy movies in my life? One is an understandable mistake, two is careless, three is irresponsible... but FOUR?
Here I am asserting my independence and standing up to the Marvel machine by not bothering to keep up with them, and I've seen FOUR Shawn Levy movies? Talk about a splash of cold water on the face.
(in case anyone was wondering, I was updating my Excel viewing log and came to Free Guy.... and then it dawned on me. I don't even think I knew going in who directed it.)
*looks over imdb
The only thing I've seen directed by him is Stranger Things. Fuck is wrong with you, trans, gross :D :D
Damn.
"No movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." - Roger Ebert
What if the movie features both?
Straight Time is alright - it's not bad. Worth a look. Saw this on Amazon Prime (for a slight additional cost) and the picture looked awesome, like it was filmed last year.
Starring Dustin Hoffman and it appears he co-directed.
"Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night"
Now be sensible and go watch Dead Man. Or Endless Night, or something else not mediocre.
Every couple of years Jen and I do a year of what we call "Picks" in an effort to not just endlessly rewatch the same favorites. Twice a week one of us picks a movie that the other cannot dispute.
Tonight Jen picked The Trouble With Harry, a Hitchcock film neither of us had seen before.
We both went into it pretty much blind, and enjoyed it a lot. A sharp black comedy that feels like it must have been an influence on the Coen's and others like them.
Stumbles once or twice with gags that overstay their welcome. And the amount of time that passes over the course of the story doesn't make sense at all.
It's not quite top level Hitchcock, but not one of his weaker efforts.
Love that movie, that's cool that you discovered it. Shirley MacLaine is tops.