Blondeshell

A movie about how bad Fox is? You don't say. Although, to be fair, it's not just Fox that has this issue, just that this is the corporation that this movie focuses on.

Gretchen Carlson has had enough of sexual harassment at Fox, is fired, and decides to sue. Meanwhile, plenty of other women are also suffering this, mainly at the hands (and other appendages) of Roger Ailes, but there are a range of reactions from 'it's what you have to put up with' to 'I'm not putting up with this'. Although that latter is far rarely, however we follow Megan Kelly as she decides to finally move into that latter camp. We also see Kayla Pospisil as the 'new girl' who encounters this system.

Women get treated horribly in businesses run by men. That is a fact, as awful as it is. This was a particularly public lawsuit happening, but this is an ongoing mess that is happening elsewhere. And so ultimately, I didn't really connect with the ongoing struggle here, because I know a lot of women have a lot worse in other places.

Now, this does give some kind of visibility, but I'm not sure other women are going to see this and then decide to stand up to their bosses, because this isn't really a cherry picture. Gretchen and Megan have a lot of money, a (admittedly limited at times) support network and can afford good lawyers, moreso than others, and that can help a lot.

Maybe I just wasn't in the best mood to watch this? I do come across as rather down on the movie, but that's mainly because I kept thinking of the wider context rather than getting into the movie itself.

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The Yentlemen

A Guy Ritchie film about tough criminal side of London? Is he the English Martin Scorsese?

When a drug king decides it's time to retire, suddenly people come out of the woodwork to consider and possibly overtake his domain. Although we do get most of the story as told to us by a dirty reporter, so already I'm suspicious of 'untrusty narrator', so I'm not incredibly sure of who is going to turn out to be after who. That said, it's a tale spun with Ritchie's style of lots of gangsters being lots of tough and many dirty dealings.

I think Guy has gotten mellow in his old age. Not so much blood and gore, just some decent performances all around. Even Matthew McConaughey isn't as over the top cowboy as he is in other movies. Charlie Hunnam is great in the supporting role, and Hugh Grant gets to extend himself. And, hey, good roles by Henry Golding and Colin Farrell. Oh yes, there are some women in this too, but they are largely considered property from the point of view of the movie.

Overall it's rather fun, but it doesn't really feel like Guy is stretching himself here. Still, very watchable.

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Juumaanjii

A nice fun movie, let's go for it!

First of all, let's cut to the chase: did they have to be more than slightly contrived to get all the original players back as well as throw in some new ones? Yes. But is it still fun? Of course it is!

Frankly, you can see why Dwayne Johnson and co want to play this. They get to play as different people as them, so they get to do a range of characters, not just stuck with one. Although this does raise the point of character interaction vs actor interaction. Is it still meaningful if the characters interacting aren't being played by the actors that developed them?

Anyway, there's a plot, but since this is a video game, it's just a silly series of set pieces. While that could describe a lot of movies, this does get away with it more because it's supposed to be a video game and really a lot of video games don't have a sensible plot when it comes to stringing set pieces together. So that's still on brand.

We also get Danny Devito doing 'old man schtick' and Danny Glover just playing himself as a relaxed old man. I'm also fairly sure that Awkwafina isn't going to be seen as doing a typical role, but hey, see above.

So, all in all, fun movie that is basically want you want for casual enjoyment.

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Doctor Sleeeeeeep

Ewan McGregor, okay, I'll buy that. But Stephen King? I'm not so sure.

Danny grew up and had problems. Big surprise. But he managed to find a place in society and keep quite. Enter a group of travelling vampires that feed on people with steam (aka shine), and a particular girl they set their sights on. Who connects with Danny. But he's not eager to get involved.

And it takes over half the movie for that to happen. Some of this is quite captivating, but I'm looking at the time and wondering when the hell the story actually begins. A lot of time is spent on set up of the villains, of the girl, of Danny, but it just takes too long. Get on with it.

Eventually the people do come together, and then it's quite quick. There's one part where you go 'huh, guess they weren't that much of a problem after all', which is an on-going problem with this movie. The main villainess is decidedly evil... but when the rest of them get dealt with easily, and the girl doesn't see her as a threat, why should I?

Eventually, yes we get back to the Overlook Hotel, and there are some great moments where they recreate the sets and some of the previous characters, and those moments are nice. There's likely all sort of emotional reasons for it not to be that way, but I would have liked to see the Overlook Hotel play more of a role of bringing these people together and have them have to deal with each other because of that, as well as with the hotel.

In all, it's decent enough, but easily could be cut into something tighter.

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Ris of the Skiwalker

Yeah, the big Star Wars movie, of course we're all going to see it.

After a Fortnight event we didn't know we had to see, this movie opens with Palpatine back and everyone is up to speed on this as a thing. What? I mean, we knew because of the trailer, but the opening crawl refers to a message that was from that there event that a LOT of theatre goers wouldn't have seen, so would it have been impossible to repeat this? This came off as extreme 'tell don't show' that is not a good way to open the movie, considering how impactful Paply is going to be for this.

Anyway, after that we get some running around and a slow realisation that we are repeated Return of the Jedi. Of course we are, JJ redid the first movie, so why not do it again? Still, JJ does have to respect what happened in the Last Jedi... but damn if he doesn't screw the story around to get back to his Mystery Box ideas of who the characters were supposed to be.

Of course it is a damn shame that Carrie Fisher wasn't around for this movie, but Leia is still around... in some carefully neutral dialogue from cut scenes, body doubles, and her speeches being replaced by other characters. (At one point, I expected one character to go "I know what you would have said, that '', but ". We came close.)

Which isn't to say that I didn't like this movie or anything. There were clear points that took me out of the movie, and, to be honest some actions scenes I was like "do we really need this?", but ultimately... it's fine.

I don't have an indepth fandom with Star Wars, so I don't care about how films ruined my childhood, or that female leads are a thing, so this movie was never going to upset or make me ecstatic, but it was decent enough, and a few 'nice!' moments (which were punctuated by the people beside me hollering at any 'epic' moment).

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Frozone Again

Okay, the creator engagement works. Because creators I follow did videos on this movie, I went to see it.

Watch the backstory of the first few minutes of the time 'my dad (as a kid) went overseas', then make a list of all the obvious revelations you would expect to see having ever seen a movie... and yep, they all happen. There is nothing surprising in this movie. Things happened, and I went "I wonder if that character will interact with that later on" and yeah, I called it. I hope this is just to open up the lore so they can do better movies in the future, 'cos this wasn't anything amazing.

I'm not the first one to jump to the Monomyth, but dear gods, this movie really checks off the moments. Call to Adventure, check, Refusal of the Call, check. Threshold Guardians, check. Mentor and Helper, check. Abyss, check. Transformation, check. Gifts, check. I know a lot of movies fit this arc, but this movie even calls it out with Comedic Sidekick (check), and most of those moments are done in song!

Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy this. I did. Just that this isn't a deep movie to get into. Hopefully, better to come.

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Knifes Out

Oh, a Rian Johnson movie? I'm in!

So, this is a whodunnit type mystery, so how much of the plot do I give away? The head of the family dies, and the rest of the family gathers around to pick over the corpse. Something suspicious seems to be happening, so we really start with the detective investigation and go from there. What is going on? What do you think is going on? What is actually going on?

Some parts I guessed, some parts I didn't. The story is a fun ride, but there were some points I was like "really? get on with it! this is just spinning out the story for the sake of... spinning out the story?" The ultimate answer was obscure enough that I didn't get there, but not so opaque that it doesn't come out of nowhere.

Good performances all around, although Daniel Craig's accent never fails to not stick out. Chris Evans should be in it more, but we have Jamie Lee Curis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette and of course Christopher Plummer.

Worth seeing, if only because you can then join in on the conversations with others about this.

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