The Geen Kinigit!

A LOT of people are excited about this, so I'll check it out.

Gawain is attending King Arthur's court when the Green Knight comes in and says "hit me and I will hit you in return, and everything will be fine" and Gawain hasn't seen the script so kills the Knight. Cut to, his journey later to go to the knight and get the returned blow.

This is based on classical mythology and... I don't get it. I wonder if I knew the story more I would? There are likely lots of references and such that makes people go "hey, that's that thing!" but none of that meant anything to me.

This movie is definitely artistic, with lots of stylish flourishes. But again, while I could appreciate it as a technical production, again the story didn't really resonate with me.

What this comes down to is: it's a nice movie, I guess, but not really meaning much to me.

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Baguette!

Of the various places our characters could go, one of them had everyone speaking French. And my character had spent time in Canada, and so could speak French. And so... however, only been there once, others have only been there a few times, and I doubt the other players really care enough to go back.

The title was obvious, and if you are reading the chat you'll see where I make that point.

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Rememberingensing

Hugh Jackman sci-fi? I'll bite, but I'm wondering if this is an excuse for historical in sci-fi clothes.

Nope, while people have said this is noir, this isn't as bad as I feared from "we live in the past". The past, in this case, is where clues are for the mystery of what happened in the now. Jackman is trying to unravel the question, and the remembering is an analogy for... living in the past? In a better time? In a time of secrets? I don't know analogies, so can't really say, but it isn't about solely dwelling in the past that the trailer hinted at.

Aside from that mystery... this isn't really that interesting a movie. The remembering of things is more of a gimmick than anything else, and yes this could easily be a noir detective story without needing to change much.

So not a bad movie... but not a great movie either.

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Snack Eyes

We've come a long way baby. But in some ways, not very far at all.

In the past, one child suffered a traumatic event. Now, in the present, he will do whatever it takes to deal with that trauma, even at the cost of learning an arc to be a better person.

While I'm not saying this movie is incredibly generic,... I am saying there are a lot of commonalities between this and a lot of other movies, particularly other martial arts movies. Heck, I'm expecting more of the same when Shang-Chi hits.

But one aspect I want to point out is: It takes 23 minutes for the first pair of female characters to come into the movie. And then another 30 minutes before the second pair. ... And that's it! Sure, you can say the yakuza and such are male biased, but godsdammit you could easily have plenty of more women around considering they are also a ninja clan, and there are masters and such. Four female characters?? In 2021? Come on now!

Aside from that... oh yeah, this is a GI Joe movie, but you'll be forgiven for blinking and missing that when that only takes up about 5 minutes of screen time.

You know what... I am going to call this generic. Watch it for Henry Golding, but not much interest otherwise.

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Poster Child!

Yep, another episode! And the internet was really crapping out hard in Europe, so only got a few episodes in.

The title, amongst other things, refers to this being a Poster Child for how to eff around and not do anything.

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Freeg Uy

It wasn't until I saw the cast list proper that I clicked: this is one of those "hey, let's make a movie with my friends" that is definitely that idea first and other things, such as plot, way later.

If you've seen the advert, you know the basic concept: NPC gets the powers of a PC. Mix in with that a standard "someone took our project" plot, and you've got the movie!

And, if you guessed at various time "that's not how the internet, or AI, or MMOs work" you'll be right! But then, we are talking about one of the writers of Ready Player One, so that tracks.

Aside from that, it's quite fun. Ryan Reynolds knows he's here to goof, so goof he does. Jodie Comer gets to do various bits of actual acting. And Taika Waititi is also here to goof. And there's also quite a list of famous names that you probably won't get until you too see the cast list.

But one cameo you will spot is where you can tell the producers suddenly got a hold of a lot of other movie's property. Still, better than RPO's use of them!

Fun gimmicky movie, but it is just a fun gimmicky movie.

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THE Swuiwide Swad

Clearly James Gunn is feeling a bit repressed under Marvel, so when given a chance to do an R18 for DC...

The easy premise with SS is that movies/missions can be completely independent, so there's no need to acknowledge the previous movie, beyond "Hey Harley was in that, then in Birds of Prey, what she doing here?" which is largely handwaved away. Beyond that, all new plot with (nearly) all new characters, and so make a bet before you go in as to who will survive and who will be killed off because no-one knows who they are (and I wouldn't even count out all the comics related people who get thanks at the end from that list). But what we do get is "go to this country where there are bad people, and deal with the bad people, and the bad things they are doing." Simple enough plot.

And fine, this clears the (low, low) bar of being better than the previous movie, but this movie still feels a little weak. It could be trimmed down some, there is just a few too many characters to try to squeeze in, so a slimmer movie would be better. Still that does let James Gunn go ham with the gore, and that's fun to see.

Margot Robbie is back with her accent and her special ability to... not get hit with bullets? Which is a neat ability, but otherwise is there because we have to have Harley. Idris Elba gets a lot to do, and his power is CGI morphing guns! Speaking of ham, John Cena is clearly having a good time, and indeed the whole cast do look to be enjoying themselves.

And I'll throw this trailer in... why, because I know one of the stuntwomen who is in this clip! (And by "know" I mean "I happen to be on the same discord server as her".)

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Yungle Kruise

Sure, the latest Disney ride made into a movie, I'll go for it.

The plot is largely straight forward. Frankly think of generic items involving ripping of the idea of Fountain of Youth, a thick jungle, and the finest of typical heroic couple, and there you are. Indeed, the main thing this movie reminded me of was The Mummy (1996), with very similar energy, and you could even map characters over if you really want to.

But what makes this movie different to all others is that this starts Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt... and they sure are in it! They are having big dumb fun, and this fits the movie perfectly, but neither is really going all out beyond that.

And hey, Jack Whiteall plays Disney's First Gay Character! (Of course, not explicitly stated, but close enough that you can tell, but still deny when trying to get the movie in the Chinese market.)

Big Dumb Fun is the basic summary of this movie, but that's about all it is.

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