Watched the new Seth Rogen movie Long Shot over the weekend and it was surprisingly good, haven't had a good laugh like that in a movie in some time. Also Charlize Theron is painfully attractive.
Forgot to mention, I saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last week. It was phenomenal, IMO. 2 hours and 40 minutes, but I was enthralled the entire time. I miss movies like this. Seems like it's getting harder and harder to find good stories. Even indy films are going to s*** because the streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon will buy just about anything to fill content quotas causing the quality to drop in that area too. People want to blame the constant retreads of worn out franchises (which is definitely part of it), but in the end, no one in Hollywood wants to look in the mirror and be honest with themselves. They are making bad movies and making bad decisions.
It was good, but not in my top 4 or 5 Quentin Tarantino movies. Pulp Fiction is #1 for me of his movies and then in no particular order after that its Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and Reservoir Dogs. I have not seen Jackie Brown and was never a huge fan of the Kill Bill ones.
OUaTiH was great, Leo and Brad were fantastic, not enough Al Pacino though. Margot was meh (although hot as hell).
Angel Has Fallen... Not bad, not as crazy as the previous one which was way over the top. More character development stuff on this installment.
Rambo last blood. Did not enjoy it. Comparing Stallone's two most enduring characters, Rocky had heart. The first film was about him and Adrian as much as him and Apollo Creed. Rambo had everything he cared stomped out of him. Therefore I can feel sorry for him but it is hard to emphasize with him. While flawed at times every Rocky film had something to offer. In contrast First Blood should have been a one and done film. Did not enjoy any of the films after First Blood. There is a reason Rambo dies in the novel. He has no arc and that is a reflection on what he has experienced. I always say that Stallone's best film is better than Arnold's because of his ability to convey some feeling and warmth which Arnold struggles with (hence the Terminator being a role where he did not have to be so "human"). That being said I can list a dozen or so Arnold films that I enjoy than pretty much all of Stallones, such as Predator, Commando, Running Man, Total Recall, Terminator, Terminator 2, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, End of days, Pumping Iron, Twins, Raw Deal (actually that film is pretty weak). Rocky, F.i.s.t, Paradise Alley and First Blood and a handful of the other Rocky films are all you need from Stallone. Copland was overrated for me, and Tango and Cash and Over the top are watchable but average. Tango and Cash wanted to be 48 hours so bad (a pity for Stallone not for us that he turned down Beverly Hills Cop and we got Eddie Murphy as a movie star and not just a SNL actor).
Knives Out was fun and clever. Daniel Craig was hilarious, as was most of the cast really. Even as a “whodunit” movie where I was expecting twists, it still managed to subvert my expectations many steps along the way.
I put this on the other night intending to watch an episode. Hours later I had watched the entire thing in stunned awe. The Netflix documentary on fake serial killer Henry Lee Lucas “The Confession Killer” is also pretty great.
I’m two episodes into the Hernandez thing. It’s good. Has anyone been watching The Outsider? Three episodes have been fantastic.
I am watching it and it is great. Also, i really, REALLY like Bateman. I always had him as this goofy/crazy guy but Ozark and now this, made me appreciate him a lot.
I loved Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I’m a huge QT fan. I’m curious to your QT film rankings? Mine: Pulp Fiction Reservoir Dogs Django Unchained Inglorious Basterds Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Kill Bill 1/2 Jackie Brown Hateful 8 Death Proof
For me Pulp Fiction (The first of his films I saw, set the tone with the dialogue the dovetailed intercut films, quotability, and a beautiful visual style despite being less cinematic than other films) Once Upon a time in Hollywood (Languid like a beautiful sunset. Cinematic camera work. Big time payoff in the end, Equisite, and I loved the tribute/time capsual to a lost era of hollywood, Note perfect performances from Pitt, Di Caprio and Robbie, sacred cow fight with Bruce Lee acknowledging the impact of size in a fight). I am so hyped for the Oscars. Just give it all the damn Oscars! Such a fun film to see. Inglorious Basterds (The Christoph Waltz scene at the start seals the deal, so epic, like your cool uncle telling you the story of WW2 instead of cracking open a history book, action on point. Best use of a Bowie song ever?, Strong female character.) Django Unchained (Lovely blend of non-contemporary music nice which has a synergy with the setting of the film. Some gorgeous shots on what is often ugly situations. Strong characters, Di Caprio as a gleeful borderline incestuous slave master/mandingo fight organiser. Payoff in the end is insane. Samuel L Jackson as the most self-loathing racist black man ever. Reservoir Dogs Watched this one a few times recently. Still amazing, still an audacious film debut. Michael Madsen is unruly and stunning in this film. Lacks the visual style. Can I just say that I like it less now. I respect Harvey Keitel's sticking up for his fallen comrade but I do not like the cop. First time I noticed Steve Buscemi (that or Fargo) so is still a stone cold classic.A movie that spurned inferior copies and inferrior dialogue from so many. Death Proof Time to be contentious. But I am following my heart. A perfect film for what it tried to achieve. Kurt Russell is so monumental in this film and that being said he plays a character who is washed, a psychopath and a loser, and yet he is still mesmeric. This film has incredible scenes. Rose McGowan dies soon (just like in Scream) she is good at doing that. Music is more than on point, including the use of the music from one of his favorite films (Blow Out by Brian De Palma). A satisfying payoff at the end (can somebody say a Tarantino trademark!) Just a lot of fun, and that counts when you go to a film. Kill Bill 1/2 This film has a lot of up and down moments for me. What puts it over Jackie Brown is the action scenes and visuals. Feel like I pick moments like the Crazy 88 fight, the Daryl Hannah fight, the hospital sequence, the fight at the ladies house with her daughter present, the grave burial scene. I think some parts are flat in this film. Bill is flat as the villain. Can I just say I would watch Michael Madsen in anything, recast him as Ryan Gosling's part in the Notebook and I would wach it. So as it is patchy and my attention can drift I put it below Death Proof. I can watch Pulp Fiction and not drift at all. I find Kill Bill is not as tight. So therefore Death Proof which is less of an epic movie is more watchable and I would revisit more. Jackie Brown Jackie Brown is a well made film. It has some amazing moments (and music) it is not a one that I go back to. I saw it again recently. I mulled over where this would go. I think for the cast it underperforms for me. I think the story is a little bit slight (i know it is based on Elmore Leonard). Just some of the talky moments lose me, and for a Tarantino movie that is unforgivable. Feel it has a more sedate matronly feel for a film where I would want to see it a bit more black explitation. Hateful 8 I love the cast. Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L Jackson. Forget about it. That being said, I feel this film is cool moments for me and not a movie I follow through. The "mystery" at the end is not compelling and is thrown together, if Tarantino was influenced by Spaghetti Westerns this ending was definitely uncooked spaghetti western. Compare the tension in John Carpenters "The Thing" to the end in this film. Chalk and cheese, champagne and horse manure. The one film I am not keen to see again (for a while) of his films. A major disappointment. I would rather see "Four Rooms" with his quarter of a film. The set just seemed cheap. I wont wrought the system, but a shout out to From Dusk till Dawn (Scripted by Tarantino starring Tarantino but directed Robert Rodriguez) and True Romance (Scripted by Tarantino but directed by Tony Scott) who would bum rush this list if they could count.
Excellent list! Don’t disagree at all. I guess a few of the spots on my list change with my mood or the recency of seeing one of the films. I’d never completely overhaul the rankings, but some of our disagreements I can totally agree with.
My Quentin List is different than a lot of people. Kill Bill 1/2 - This movie was Quentin on steroids to me. It was like taking all the little Quentinisms and turning up the volume to 11. Beatrix had such an aura about her, and I'm a sucker for Japanese cinema, which this felt like at times. Pulp Fiction - Amazing that it didn't win best picture, and even more amazing that it probably shouldn't have when you consider it went up against Forrest Gump (an inferior film), but also Shawshank Redemption (maybe a top 5 film of all time for me). Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Not a recency bias. I just loved the long, drawn-out story, the old Hollywood backdrop that they took the time to create and then even more time to show us. I think my love for the movie stems from most the movies in the theaters these days look to be directed by someone on meth with the "here's a scene, cut it three minutes too short, onto the next scene" style. Sure you can find slower, more methodical movies being made, but they aren't in theaters anymore. Jackie Brown - Robert Forster and Pam Grier steal the screen. The characters in this film are all so unique and interesting, but unlike other Tarantino movies, seem like they could definitely be real people. Django Unchained - I felt like I was watching a Quentin movie at times, then I felt like I had been transported back to early Hollywood spaghetti westerns. That sounds like it should be jarring on the surface, but somehow it was smooth. Reservoir Dogs - It had pacing issues and some of the jankiness a first time director would have. But it definitely showed he was capable of amazing things. Now to where things get a little more critical... Hateful Eight - Quentin was accused of getting a little too self-indulgent with once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I thought THIS was the movie where he got too self-indulgent. It feels like he had 2-3 ideas for movies, but instead decided he would try to take those ideas and compartmentalize them into one movie. It didn't work for me. I watched it one time in the theater (in 70 mm) and I haven't watched it again. Inglorious Basterds - It could be a case where Christoph Waltz was just so captivating, the rest of the movie felt like a wet fart in comparison. But if he wasn't on screen, the movie dragged, it dragged hard. This film could probably have been cut down to a tight 115 minutes or so and been much better. Death Proof - If he indeed follows through with his "10 Films and I'm out" retirement plan, I will fell very cheated that this was one of the 10. It feels like him and Robert Rodriguez were drinking one night and jokingly though it'd be sweet to do a double feature...but they never sobered up and slapped these movies together in two weeks.
Parasite was very good, but maybe a tad overrated. Very entertaining movie and well made, but I think the social commentary aspect was overblown and it doesn’t really say anything too groundbreaking or insightful.
Sonic was surprisingly decent. If you go into it accepting that it’s a cheesy kids movie, you’ll have a good time. More of the jokes landed than missed, it doesn’t focus too much on the human plot, and Sonic is actually a very likable protagonist with some cool action scenes.
