cinematicann

[cinematicann]

Gladiator and Gladiator 2

This weekend I decided to watch Gladiator before I went to go see Gladiator 2. I know real weird topic. I was ok with not watching the first one and wanted to watch the second one because Pedro Pascal was in it. I was convinced to watch the first one just to know the story and get an idea of what the second one might be. Here are my thoughts.

The first gladiator, I really enjoyed it. I'm not a big history buff and don't watch too many movies that are within the roman times (might need to change that). Quick Synopsis: Maxiumus (Russell Crow) seeks vengeance on the corrupt emperor who murdered his family. Some of the things I liked about the movie. The fight choreography was really good and kept the tension when they were in the arena. The actors were very good. Whether it be Russell Crow playing the main actor, Connie Nielson playing Lucilla, or Joaquin Phoenix playing the young emperor. While I didn't truly have anything I hated, sometimes the cgi was just to much and would take me out of the scene.

Overall, I think the movie still holds up today and is a good start to the gladiator franchise.

Seeing gladiator 2 in theaters was something I'm very thankful for than waiting to watch it at home on my tv. The action was intense and the music paired with the atmosphere beautifully.

Quick synopsis: Years after the first movie, we follow Lucius (Paul Mescal) go into the colosseum to take his revenge on the ones he's lost and help reclaim Rome back from the conquering emperors.

The good: The actors. What can I say, they had a grade A cast line up for this movie. Paul Mescal playing Lucius, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, and Connie Nielson returning as Lucilla. The choreography is bigger and bloodier. Seems like Ridley Scott knew how to satiate the audiences bloodlust for watching gladiators fight.

The bad (not really, just some things that bothered me): CGI. I feel like I bring this up almost every time I talk about a movie or show. But if I feel like it doesn't blend just right, it's extremely glaring for me. I try not to have that ruin the movie for me. I can't imagine how hard people work for that to be on screen for maybe 5-10 minutes. One other thing was how willing some of the characters were able to let things slide. I get it, we need to get to the next thing for the plot.

Overall, it was a great movie and I really enjoyed it. I'm curious if Ridley Scott will look into making a third gladiator movie. If not, I think we have a hopeful ending to see a better Rome.

[cinematicann]

Twisters

I just went to go see Twisters with my family. I'll admit, l love horror/scary movies in general. This movie still has my hand shaking from the fear. It probably doesn't help that I'm terrified of serve weather (mainly tornadoes) and I live in the Midwest. Through the years, I've learn to distance myself when watching disaster movies that it doesn't affect me as much. This one hit a lot harder.

I think what got me and kept me scared was when they were chasing the tornadoes, there was a level of seriousness that was kept while they were joking.

I would absolutely recommend this movie to people who like disaster movies or liked the twister movie.

[cinematicann]

Malignant

I was a little skeptical about this movie. I remember seeing the trailers back in 2021 and thinking I would be interested. But when it finally came out and hearing some reviewers I like to watch, I lost interest in watching it. A while back, my friend recommend it. So, on a Saturday night looking for a movie to watch. I thought what the hell, let's at least give the movie a shot. I'm so glad I did!

This movie is really good. While it wasn't scary to me, the camera work reminded me of the original evil dead movies. Where the camera almost acts as the monster following the character. Another thing I would love to praise is the visuals. They were beautiful while Maddison was having a vision. The room she's in, it would look like it's melting and combining to the room that she's seeing the vision of.

The one thing that kind of brought me out of the movie were the jokes the police would do at the crime scene. While I thought the actors did well for the characters they were trying to portray. It seemed a little off when (minor spoiler). When they are at the first crime scene and looking at the trophy that only has the base. One of the detectives tells forensic to find the other half. She responds don't we all. Not necessary a bad thing, but sometimes they just brought me out of the tension of what is happening and broke the illusion of what movies try to bring you in to their world.

Otherwise, I thought it was great. All the actors were really good and I'm so happy that James Wan did another horror movie. I hope he does more.

[cinematicann]

Murder Drones

I just started watching Murder Drones series created by Glitch on Youtube. I have just seen the first two episodes. The animation is beautiful and so fluid. I'm excited to keep learning more about this world.

[cinematicann]

Deadpool and Wolverine

Yesterday I went to go see Deadpool and wolverine. My thoughts...

I love this movie. The merc with a mouth is back and loving it. With the merger between Fox and Disney, there was always talk about bringing in the X-Men into the mcu world and they delivered. Right at the beginning of the movie had me laughing till my chest hurts.

Quick one sentence of the plot, Deadpool needs to find wolverine to save his world (kind of shown in trailers).

With the finale of Loki season 1 and 2 pushing off to have more expansions of the multi-verse and have more stories. It gave Deadpool a way to be within the MCU without actually being "in" the MCU 616 universe. As shown in the trailers, they do get stuck in the void for while and get to see lots of CAMEOS! I'm not great with actors names, I've never had. But seeing alot of characters from the X-men movies that I got to grow up from in a Deadpool movie just made me so happy.

For the cameos, I won't get to much into it since I know a lot of people enjoy being surprised by them. All i'll say is they just about have a cameo from a good chunk of the fox movies. Take that as you will.

The one big issue I did have with the movie and it's personal preference on my end. There would be shots where the characters would jump out of something or where it would almost go in slow motion. The CGI would be super over detailed that it looked like it was from a video game. Which kudos to the FX editors to make it look really good. It just brings me out of the movie just a little bit, but it didn't ruin my experience overall.

If your a fan of superhero movies or just a fan of Deadpool movies. I would highly recommend this movie. It has so much crude humor and violence. I'm here for all of it. I can't wait for it to come out on Blu-ray, so I can do a marathon of all 3 movies.

[cinematicann]

Long Legs

I saw Long Legs last night and I just have to say. It was a amazing movie. I would recommend not looking anything up for the movie. All I'll say about it if someone asked me on what it's like or about. It's a thriller horror movie. I really would love to go back and see it again to catch some of the stuff I missed the first time. The only warning I'll give is if you have trouble with flashing lights, it does happen throughout the movie.

[cinematicann]

Godzilla x Kong: The new empire

Tonight I watched Godzilla x Kong: The new empire. I want to say, I didn't enjoy this movie. There were parts I liked, but overall I was disappointed.

Let's get into why I'm not a big fan of this movie. I thought it was going to be like most monster/kaiju movies. Giant monsters fighting. I know it's very simple concept, but sometimes it's nice to watch giant monsters just fight each other.

Something that got me was the story had to keep jumping around to follow 3 story/plot lines for them to merge all to the main theme for the BIG FIGHT!!!! You had the humans who go into the hollow world to figure out what happened to one of the research bases. You have Kong going on a cross country road trip with a little Kong. Then you have Godzilla on the surface that keeps going after other Kaiju and powerplants to absorb more energy.

A weird thing I kept seeing and I don't know if it was the camera angle or the way they edited the film, every once and awhile in the background/around the actors. The plants would almost blur/curve. I don't know if that was a artistic choice or just a different way the scene was shot. It threw me off.

While I have talked a bit about not liking the movie, there were parts I did like and I want to make sure to have some positivity in this. The CGI for this movie is amazing and credit to the artists that worked on this. The actors were good and helped carry the overall plot.

Overall, it wasn't a bad movie. I just didn't enjoy it as much as some others that I watched it with.

*Also, I now understand all the memes of Mothra being Godzilla's girlfriend. It makes so much more sense

[cinematicann]

Shin Godzilla and Godzilla minus one

Last weekend I was able to sit down and watch both Shin Godzilla and Godzilla minus one.

I enjoyed shin Godzilla more in the sense of the destruction of what happened around Tokyo and Japan. During the movie, they show how the government would respond to a massive disaster/kaiju scenario. To see them spend hours of meetings for them to make a simple response on how they wanted to handle Godzilla coming onto shore was extremely interesting. It also felt like the destruction was more personal. Some examples: (minor spoiler) watching a family try to get ready to evacuate out of their apartment, while Godzilla rams by the building and you watch the family fall in the apartment. Seeing the government officials going to the destruction site and seeing clothes and workers trying to get through the debris with soft music is heart breaking. With Godzilla minus one, the visuals were amazing(they deserved all the awards). To have the story set in the late 1940's after world war 2 was an interesting take on how they would deal with Godzilla and how the lack of technology was able to keep the Kaiju under wraps for awhile (spoilers kind of?) until it goes through the Ginza district. It's a beautiful story with an amazing cast.

I recommend watching both of these movies for anyone who loves watching Godzilla movies or just enjoys a good story with complex characters.