#and i'm rewatching most of andy's movies

[maximura]

Caesar (performed by Andy Serkis) in War for the Planet of The Apes (2017)

[qilingxiong]

九龍城寨之圍城 | Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

I've rewatched this movie more than once, since seeing it in theatres back in August, and each time was just as good as the first if not better. Given that, I now have many thoughts so I'm subjecting y'all to listening to why you should watch it:

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (九龍城寨之圍城 or gau2 lung4 sing4 zaai6 zi1 wai4 sing4) is a martial arts action/crime film directed by Soi Cheang. It is an adaptation of the manhua City of Darkness by Andy Seto, and its source novel of the same name by Yuyi. The film's cast has established Hong Kong names folded in with newer-generation actors, starring Raymond Lam, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, German Cheung, and Tony Wu (Aaron Kwok gets a cameo role, too).

At a broad glance, the movie follows several major triads in 1980s Hong Kong and their power struggle to control the Kowloon Walled City (a densely populated urban enclave, which for decades evaded direct governance by either the British colonial or Chinese powers in the area). We're introduced to the KWC and the triads' major players through the eyes of Chan Lok-Kwan (Raymond Lam), a man fleeing Vietnam and attempting to make a life for himself in HK. He winds up seeking refuge in the KWC, and comes to call both the city and the people he meets in it a home worth defending.

The narrative itself is not the most complex, but if you enjoy '80s Hong Kong films in these genres, it's solid fare and a harkening back to that decade. All the major themes like brotherhood (and brotherhood vs blood), vengeance, and struggle with conflicting loyalties are there, alongside an internal search for identity and belonging within Hong Kong. But the highlight in it is that the plot connects feast after feast of utterly stunning fight choreography, made all the more impressive by the fact that, according to Louis Koo, quite a few major cast members had never filmed this kind of action before. All their training was done just for TotW, and oh, does it pay off. I can't make good gifs, so you'll have to watch and see for yourself. It's not action for action's sake, either; listening to the head stunt choreographer discuss how different characters' fighting styles were crafted shows off how fight scenes aren't breaks in the story, they tell the story, and deepen our understanding of the characters.

The setting of the Kowloon Walled City truly makes the action in TotW stand out. It's a unique space to stage all these major fights, as the KWC's buildings at the time were packed together close enough to resemble a singular block from the outside. Once inside, it's a stacked, dark maze of uneven paths, stairs, and rickety roofs, with electrical and television cabling snaking over/around/through everything. Fight scenes in these streets feel thrillingly claustrophobic, with lots of acrobatics and near-dodges as characters navigate these tight alleys of the KWC. Each impact as a character goes flying into a wall, or is launched down a flight of stairs or onto a roof, is wonderfully visceral to watch.

All credit and hopefully awards are due to the production and set design teams for their work, in crafting this environment for the story and its fights. The visual/spatial representation of the KWC is the film's other glorious highlight, alongside the choreography. Whole streets of the KWC were recreated for this, filled with every mundane, period-accurate detail from the lives of ordinary people who would have lived there. It's impossible to catch all the intricacies put into making the KWC come to life again onscreen, just from watching the film. Shots like the credits sequence offer close-ups of harder-to-see details, and videos like a tour of the KWC set by Terrance Lau, acting as his character Shin, show off things from the drinks in the fridge at the corner store to the scribbled writing on the walls by the public taps. This film was designed with a drive to faithfully represent what the Kowloon Walled City had been like, how it looked when it was lived in, and they achieved it to an incredible degree.

That dedication extends to more than just the sets, though. The emotional core of TotW revolves around the KWC's inhabitants, and how they were the ones who made the city what it was, a home for about 35,000 people at a time. The film doesn't treat the KWC as just an eye-catching location to stage some fights; its characters might be fictional and overloaded with jianghu powers, but it goes out of its way to show how ordinary people might have lived, worked, and socialized within the historic city. It shows off why, despite its (not unwarranted) dark reputation, so many chose to live in a place that was once the densest urban center on the planet.

And this brings us to the acting, because the cast all do a very good job bringing their characters to life as the heart of the KWC. Louis Koo is fucking fantastic and arguably the scene stealer of the film as Cyclone, the triad leader in current charge of the KWC. He's grumpy, magnetic, and dangerous when he must be, but he also cares so very, very deeply about the inhabitants within his jurisdiction. Terrance Lau's Shin acts as his charismatic and capable right hand man, as well as protégé to Cyclone, befriending Chan Lok-Kwan and helping him become accustomed to life in the KWC. These two, along with the snarky Twelfth Master (Tony Wu) and the masked + imposing AV (German Cheung) become a quartet with great chemistry and friendship, the next generation to watch over and protect the Kowloon Walled City. Outside the KWC cast, antagonist figures like Sammo Hung, Philip Ng, and Richie Jen's characters are intimidating and compelling as threats to the city, and the lives people have etched out within its walls.

All of these things put together, and Twilight of the Warriors is a deeply fun, enjoyable, and rewatchable film (so good, in fact, that Hong Kong has submitted it as its nomination for the 2025 Oscars). The movie doesn't lose its emotional throughline in the promise of an action-packed ride it fully delivers on, and it uses its narrative, setting, and choreography to pay tribute to an earlier era of Hong Kong, as well as highlight + humanize a piece of the region's history that might not be quite as well known to some.

(The Kowloon Walled City was demolished and its inhabitants relocated in 1993. The area where it once stood is now a park, with some historic buildings preserved. If you're curious about people in the KWC before demolition, City Of Darkness: Life In Kowloon Walled City (1993) by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot is a collection of photographs and first-hand recountings from residents, recording their lives and stories. I'm in the midst of reading it right now.)

If anything I've said has piqued your interest whatsoever, I say to give Twilight of the Warriors a try, if you have a free two hours to spare. Something in it will be worth it for you. And if I've failed to convince you with any of this, or you need one more push, here's the trailer for the film:

And if I did manage to actually get anyone to seek out this movie, please tell me! I'd love to know your thoughts.

[scimitar-and-longsword]

I love your headcanons. What's your favorite one about Nicky ? And/or your favorite character trait of him?

Oh my goodness, thank you!

Nicky Nicky Nicky 💕💕💕

My FAVORITE??? That's a tall order cause there are so many things I love about him. Luca did such a stellar job of taking this character who doesn't have as much screentime as some of the other characters and bringing him to life in the most subtle ways. (I have an entire meta about subtle face acting from him and Marwan lol which side note, is flagged for sexual content, and I was sitting here reading it like "what why?? This is just about facial expressions?" And then I got halfway through and went "oop- that'll do it 😅")

I wrote a meta about this back in the old days, but I think about it every time I rewatch the movie so I'm saying it again: I love that Nicky is fiercely physical with his love.

We certainly get to see Joe be more vocal about is love, (and it's a violent movie they all are physical lol) but every bit of Nicky's physicality and fight chreo is about protecting people.

He is constantly protecting those around him with his body (and to be fair, they all do this at some point. Perks of being immortal is that you can use your body as a shield) but Nicky just KEEPS doing it.

There's a subtle moment after Joe gets stabbed by Merrick where TO ME it looks like he's trying to get between Joe and Merrick. The guy holding back Nicky is like GRIPPING his shoulder.

Nicky is constantly going from the front of the group to the rear and back again. Like he needs to be the first line of defense against wherever the most unknowns are.

He does it when they first exit the lab they were being held in. He's second out of the door, following Nile's lead, but then immediately covers the rear (after executing a completely unnecessary slide move that you can only see in behind the scenes footage and always makes me laugh.) to then turn around and cover everyone else as they exit.

Then again when he takes the bullet for Andy, he's at the rear of the group with Joe, takes the bullet, and then runs through the ENTIRE group, while healing from said bullet, past the door they are going to go into (and presumably check that it's clear) to cover the other end of the hall. And look at that he's at the rear of the group again... Over the course of not even half a minute. Ping pong ball Nicky over here.

When Joe and Nicky are fighting Keane after the explosion Nicky is fucking reckless with how he fights, and mostly cause Joe is kind of getting his ass kicked. 😅 He throws himself onto Keane not once but twice! Both times when Joe is about to get absolutely bodied.

In a similar fashion, Nicky often acts like a battering ram, taking people down for Joe to take out just after him. (If you go back up to that behind the scenes gif of Nicky sliding you can see he does this there too. Shoots a guy in the knee who Joe then shoots in the head.)

Idk if this was at all coherent because I'm writing this on my phone while watching a Tinkerbell movie with my daughter 😂 so I'm sure I'm missing so many more examples of it. But Nicky is often quiet with his words, but he is not quite with his actions and I love that about him!!

[whattadroid]

I rewatched alien: romulus with subtitles this time so if you (like me) were looking for spelling/names OR might be able to answer some small lore questions, I'll list them all under the cut :)

(I apologize in advance for the shitty formatting. I typed this all out like an animal and I truly do not know how to edit tumblr formatting lmao)

Characters:

Marie Raine Carradine (Rain), Andy (model number ND-225, also: could that be a positronic man reference? Positronic Man's Andrew was NDR-113 but the ND -> Andrew thing felt too similar to ignore), Tyler, Kay (Tyler's sister), Bjorn (Tyler and Kay's cousin, also the father of Kay's unborn baby), Navarro, and Rook (same model as Ash from Alien, Rook is his surname and he has an unknown first name I believe)

Places:

Jackson (a WY mining colony), Yvaga III (a non Weyland-Yutani solar system which apparently means that androids are not allowed there which is INCREDIBLY interesting to me), Corbelan IV (the name of the ship the group works out of. I think it's supposed to be a hauling vessel? Short flight probably because it doesn't have any long flight capabilities like cryosleep chambers), Renaissance Space Station (the name of the station where shit goes down, separated into two halves called Romulus and Remus)

Some interesting tidbits:

- Rain's dad FOUND Andy "in the trash" according to Bjorn. Also, Rain's dad (presumably) repaired him, wrote directives for him, and knew enough about synthetic programming to know how to alter their personality. Or maybe he just straight up told Andy "hey memorize this book of dad jokes" and Andy was functional but just as glitchy when they found him.

- Jackson is fucked, btw. With all of those facehuggers that fell into the colony the odds are that at least one of them survived and, as Andy himself said, they are "busy little creatures". I wonder if there will be future mentions to a destroyed Jackson colony?

- The scene with Kay sort of quietly sneaking through the hallway with the orange lighting looked SO MUCH like the alien from alien: isolation, with the flared fingers and all. Am I the only one that made that connection?? Was it a connection at all lmao??? It's all I can think abt each time I see that gif.

- Tyler's actor was fucking incredible. I missed a lot of the hard hitting scenes the first time but goddamn. The tear while Kay is screaming and they are trying to be quiet? Begging andy ON HIS KNEES to open the door to save Kay? The way he's like numbly denying what he just saw saying "okay, okay. I'll just go and get her" after Kay gets taken. very good shit

- Rook says "I discovered the genome" as in HE specifically discovered it. I just thought that was interesting that he attributed it to himself. I wonder if he was in charge and had human assistants (interesting implications there to the importance of synthetics to WY's scientific structure) or if HE was the "assistant" (bc he's a synth) and yet was the one who discovered it and, probably regardless of what the human scientists believe, takes the merit of the discovery.

- It seems like WY synthetics are STRONGER than xenomorphs. Andy pried open a closing station door and held up the elevator in two scenes, both of which had moments where a xenomorph tried to do the same thing and failed or was not able to do it as effortlessly as he had. Maybe I'm reading into the movie magic too much but I was VERY interested in that.

Questions!!! (most of these probably do not have answers yet, which is okay, but some of you have encyclopedic knowledge of alien lore lol so I just wanted to try)

1. Is Rain under 18?? I didn't catch the info on the screen when Rain was talking to the WY rep about her quota but I can't understand why they would ask that if she was over 18. Why would it matter? Was it maybe just because she had family listed on her account or something?

2. WHY are there "quotas" and contracts? What are THEY (the workers) getting out of it? Are they prisoners? Are they colonists that didn't realize what the fuck they were signing on to do? Was Rain born on the colony? They said that it was Rain and Andy's first time in space, so probably, right?

3. Does a xenomorph grow in the chambers of the heart? I sort of figured because it went down the throat that it grew in the stomach, but it seemed like (thru the gore at least) the xenomorph was incubating and burst from the chambers of the heart. I may have misidentified the organs though lol, or maybe Navarro's heart just straight up was In The Way.

4. Do WY androids have the same heat signature as a human? If so, why? It is way too much a coincidence to build an android with a 98.6 ambient temperature. If they do NOT have the same heat signature, why didn't the facehuggers react to andy? They reacted to the flare despite it being non-organic, so I thought they would've reacted to him in some way at least, or had some sort of scene with them crawling all over andy like spiders trying to see if he was organic and then treating him like furniture when they realized he wasn't (missed opportunity cause that would've been a really freaky shot lol)

5. Why did Kay touch her breast after she had "given birth"? Was she lactating the genome? I tried to pay very close attention bc I missed it the first time too but I don't know what they were trying to insinuate there. It seemed too sticky to be the genome.

[jakey-beefed-it]

I watched Alien: Romulus tonight, after having wanted to see it since it came out. Spoiler-free review: It's a B that could've been an A. Probably the best Alien movie since Aliens, definitely the best since Alien 3. It's at its best when it's doing it's own thing, and at its weakest when too directly trying to be "just like Alien/Aliens!". If I have one chief complaint, it's that it would benefit from a stronger 'less is more' approach than it takes. Spoilers below the cut.

So one problem I have is the timing. The alien's lifecycle, as established in other films, takes time. It's fast as hell compared to normal things, but on the order of hours and days rather than months and years, rather than minutes. They could've tossed in a single comment to the effect of "the scientists extracted the black goo compound and refined it, testing it on the facehuggers and whoops their lifecycle got sped WAY the fuck up" but they didn't so that's the realm of headcanon rather than text.

EDIT: rewatched it today and there is some commentary over how the xenomorph has a measure of control over its metabolism; the reason it's able to mature so rapidly and yet also shut down for long-term vacuum survival. It's not quite as apparent as I'd like but it definitely qualifies as offering at least some textual explanation so my above complaint is less 'this makes no internal sense' and more 'this strains my suspension of disbelief even more than the things' ability to grow to prodigious size without seemingly feeding on anything already did.'

Speaking of the black goo, yeah, it ties back into Prometheus (which I saw, and personally didn't much like) and Covenant (which I didn't see owing to not having much liked Prometheus). On the whole I don't know that this was the right move for the franchise, but the film mostly makes it work. The final monster being essentially a xenomorph/engineer hybrid was not a premise I was excited about and the stills I'd seen made it look kinda stupid, but in the actual execution, it is suitably unsettling/uncanny and imo it actually works.

There were a couple of nostalgia lines that made me roll my eyes pretty hard- when Andy rescues Rain toward the end by zero-g divebombing an oncoming xenomorph, shooting it and saying "get away from her" i was like "yeah great, good callback, good moment". When he then adds "...you bitch" I rolled my eyes. Didn't fit the moment or the character, was strictly there to reference a better moment in a better movie.

Which isn't to fault David Jonsson, who plays Andy extremely well. Due to synthetic fuckery he has basically 2, 2 and a half personalities throughout the film, and he does them all very very well. Stand-out performance IMO, would love to see him in more stuff.

Cailee Spaeny does a good job as Rain, there were a couple moments early on where I wasn't 100% convinced of her authenticity, but as the film wore on, I saw that it was an acting choice to make Rain a bit socially stunted, coming across as awkward.

None of the actors were bad at all, and while I have some ethical concerns with digitally resurrecting a cgi Ian Holm circa 1979, the effects were cromulent and whoever they got to do most of his voice work was quite good, and Rook made for a decent antagonist.

On the topic of 'less is more' I mentioned above, I really wish they'd used fewer aliens in a couple of the big set pieces. You don't need a dozen scrambling facehuggers to be terrifying, you honestly don't need more than one, but the pair of them from the scene with Ripley and Newt proves that 'one per endangered character' is a fine guideline. Likewise when they get to the hive section of the station, they could've kept it every bit as terrifying (and indeed probably more so) with fewer, stealthier aliens than they used.

EDIT: the things a lot of horror fans care most about that I didn't mention on my first pass. The SFX are great, very effective. I'm not sure to what degree they relied on practical effects but there's a much more tangible feel to a lot of things that are very hard to get with cgi. There are a couple of cgi moments that are less effective imo- the zero-g acid blood wasn't 100% convincing though it was by no means bad -but for the most part, it was all very convincing and suitably visceral for a franchise so thoroughly rooted in body horror. The deaths were gruesome in a franchise-appropriate way, for the most part, and people who watch horror movies with that as their priority should be reasonably satisfied. The lighting was dark in a good way- not so dark you couldn't see what the fuck was happening, but dark enough that the shadows were ominous and potentially hiding threats. Set design was flawless, no notes.

From a scientific standpoint, i didn't like how solid the rings were. Planetary rings are absolutely a feasible astronomical hazard one would want to avoid crashing into, but that's less to do with their status as what looked like a frozen sea of bumper-to-bumper icebergs, and more to do with their being composed of eighty fucktillion objects moving at orbital velocities which will absolutely shred any object moving perpindicularly (more or less) through them. This is admittedly a pretty nerdy quibble that most viewers won't give a shit about and I'm willing to mostly overlook it for the sake of the film but it did make me pull a scrunchy Kermit face.

My most minor complaint was the (in my opinion) overuse of the Weyland-Yutani name and logo. A single use of the logo would've been sufficient. Since the film's mission statement was basically a return to the whole cassette-futurism of the first two films, calling it simply 'the Company' would've gone a long way toward that.

Probably my most significant complaint pertains to misogyny. Like, okay, this is an Alien film, it's going to be chock-full of reproductive body horror, big creepy bio-mechanical genital-lookin stuff, etc. But of the four characters who die, both men die of 'being attacked by a full-grown alien'. One dies by being impaled by a phallic tail, so that's something, I guess. The other dies by getting whomped upside the head and falling into the stream of some acid pouring from a distinctly vaginal alien coccoon. He'd just rammed a phallic tazer thing into it though, so maybe it's some weird sort of payback if you want to psychoanalyze it. Both women, however, die due to alien pregnancy- one from a normal chestburster, the other killed by the weird uncanny human-alien-engineer monster her fetus turned into after she tried to save her own life by injecting the black goo. Not by its birth, despite the size of the coccoon thing she passes and the accompanying blood loss, but when it comes back and chomps on her a bit with its more eel-like pharyngial jaw. Which is also rather phallic now that i write it out like that. Meh.

EDIT: there's also a bit of unfortunate implications wrt race. Two points, outlined below.

The most obvious is that the artificial person owned by the company is a black man, but given that previous synths in the franchise have all been white actors (Ian Holm, Lance Henriksen, Winona Ryder, Michael Fassbender) it probably gets a bit of a pass. Only a bit of one, in that Andy is outright stated to be a more menial model than, say, Ash or Bishop given the designed role of 'mining colony asset' rather than 'science officer' or 'colonial marines assset' which has some unfortunate implications. I might have more to say on the matter if I myself was black, but I'll leave that to other reviewers.

The other thing is that the survivors are the white woman and her synthetic brother (played by a black man, as mentioned above). Which could be worse, for sure, but it doesn't sit entirely right with me that the brown guys (I couldn't speak to their specific ethnicity though I'd take a stab at 'mixed' with some white ancestry in there too) and the brown woman (definitely a latina) get killed off. As a mixed white/latino guy, I just wanna see a brown person survive the whole horror movie sometimes. I'm often disappointed. At least the director is a latino guy? It's something.

On the whole though, it's a pretty effective, decent Alien film that could've been a very effective, great Alien film if it had a bit more restraint. Your mileage may vary, of course, but in my opinion, the weaker elements don't wholly overwhelm the stronger ones, only dragging it down a peg or so.

[majaloveschris]

I need to vent a little.

Even though we had the Page Six article of Chrisba meeting Harry and Meghan and that Mark started following Justin, things had been relativly quiet. No big drama, no something that seemed too important. This morning I woke up to this whole Carlisle and IMDb thing, and I don't know why, but it's usually the Carlisle house and blurry pictures that make me realize how much I hate this whole situation. I'm just tired of it.

I made this account around April 2022, a year and a half ago. Looking back at it, it's crazy how things have changed. How all of us changed. How our view of Chris has changed.

My only goal with this blog was to share my opinion about this and my point of view. In the beginning, I think most people were confused about what's going on here and why everything was so weird. People were freaked out because of her age, and 16 years turned into racism, fatphobia, and people who support nazis.

We all said and still say it's going to get better, but when? I find myself not wanting to talk about this or deal with this whole situation, especially on those days when life feels too much for me. I don't want to argue with anyone; I don't want to argue whether the Carlisle house is his or if they are going to live there or not. I don't want to argue whether he was in a blurry picture or not. I don't want to argue whether they are real or not. I just don't anymore. I never wanted to convince people that I'm right or that I know what's going on, because I'm not. I only want to share my opinion; that's it, and sometimes people here make me want to leave much more than this weird whatevership does.

I'm just tired of them. Tired of their stupid followings, likes, and comments...Of their stupid stories filled with little signs and tired of them tiring to make this believable when they are clearly incapable of selling whatever this is. I'm tired of their games, and I'm surprised that they aren't tired of playing them. I'm tired that now even those who aren't involved are trying to "troll" the fandom for attention.

Whenever we think it's getting better, they just do something even worse, and it obviously has an effect on us. His actually being in love with her and wanting to spend the rest of his life with her (which seems very unlikely when you look at them) would mean he is okay with their values and that he agrees with them. I think I could "forgive" him for this being PR, but if he wants to actually be with her, I don't want to support that with my money and time.

There are always and will always be people who cross the line when it comes to their favorite celebrity, but this situation seems to get the worst out of everyone, of those who are directly and indirectly involved. Since the very first Las Vegas day, we have been shown that if you want to know what is actually going on, you need to look for clues. On videos, on pictures, among somebody's following list, or among those people who liked something, I know that now people say, Why do we even care about whom he dates? I didn't really care that much about them being real or not until her and her friends pasts came out. Up until that point, the only thing that bugged me about this whole thing was that Justin and Alba seemed to troll the fandom for attention, and I didn't like the way they tried to take advantage of Chris and his fandom.

Some people can't seem to understand the actual problem with him being connected to them. I don't want to support someone who is okay with the behavior of Alba and her friends. But it's hard to believe and seems impossible to me that the man we'd seen for 20+ years has never existed. He is not that good of an actor, and I don't think somebody would be able to play a role for decades.

I have a lot of movies with him in them that I love and want to rewatch, but this whole situation makes it really hard for me. I only see him. I see him when I look at Colin, or Andy, or Ransom, or Steve, or any of his characters. I miss that guy who was always smiling and laughing during an interview. I miss the guy who seemed happy and healthy. Right now he isn't even the shadow of his old self.

I don't want this to come across as me complaining. I know that nobody forces me to be here. I know that I could just delete this blog and go on with my life, but I like having my blogs. I like coming here and talking to my friends; I like seeing funny edits; and I like making funny edits. I would love to talk about his projects, make edits, and share photos and videos. I had so many things in mind prior to the whole wedding thing, which may always remain in my gallery and my drafts.

I will still continue with this blog, but I needed to write it down how I feel, because I think a lot of us feel this way. I'm staying; I'm not leaving because I need to know how this whole thing is going to end, and I still have some hope in him.

[greatrunner]

Rewatching King Kong 2005, and:

(1) I really think the subplot between the Hayes (Evan Parke) and Jimmy (Jamie Bell) might be the best part of the Skull Island story.

(2) Andy Serkis' Lumpy is funnier than I remember him being as a kid.

(3) The extended scenes in this film do not feel necessary, but most of them are monster sequences and people getting squashed, so I can see why they were trimmed. They are fun, but not really a net loss.

(4) The Skull Island natives are the worst/most racist part about this film and the King Kong narrative in general. Jesus be a Fence.

(5) Almost everyone in the cast works in the film except for Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll. I don't like him as an actor in general, but he truly sucks the air out of every scene he's in - especially playing opposite of Naomi Watts. He truly feels intrusive in her storyline, which isn't something I can say about any of the other male actors she shares a scene with. I'm rooting for Kong whenever the movie allows him to smash his character into paste.

(6) Bruce Baxter peacing out of the "Rescue Ann Darrow" mission might be the smartest thing anyone in the film did, but it also works as a way to (kinda) explain how the German captain and the other men rescue everyone.

(7) The dinosaur stampede sequence is such a cartoon sequence. It's really hard to do anything except laugh at characters fixing their cigars, Mario jumping on collapsing cliff faces, or running past people with speeds only achievable if you were Bugs Bunny (the only thing missing was the treadmill feet, ah-la Kung Fu Hustle).

(8) King Kong jaw-splitting his enemies remains the coolest finishing move for any movie monster ever.

[depresseddepot]

watched alien: romulus. so many fucking good cinematic moments. actual "review" (NOT spoiler free) under the read more

Firstly the good: I think they accomplished their supposed goal of matching the vibes of the first movie. I think the callbacks/references/quotes were a LITTLE on the nose, but each of them made me kick my feet in the theater, so they still got me lmao. The soundtrack gave me chills. The fucking part where the oxygen is sucked out and she's dangling being COMPLETE SILENCE was soo cool. The part when Andy realizes he needs to kill one of the crew members (whose name I don't know, which I'll get to later) and he says his "you finally won't think of me as a child anymore" line and then sprints to hunt one of them down was so up my alley i had to physically restrain myself from laughing and clapping during the movie.

Next, the bad, or more the not so good: it was so fucking dark. The darkness in the beginning on the colony was cool because it felt appropriate, but the darkness later was REALLY frustrating. I was watching it in a local theater with not so great image and light quality, so maybe the darkness was actually an issue with the theater, but I can't know for sure until I rewatch it on DVD. Which I will almost certainly be doing, because I COULDNT UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WERE SAYING HALF OF THE TIME. This is probably a me thing, but I feel as if so many of the characters slurred or murmured their words, and without subtitles that is just impossible for me to understand. The only characters names that I know is Andy and Rain and that is ONLY because I read them in an article before. I think one was named Kyle? The CGI was actually frighteningly good in every aspect EXCEPT the android on the station (which....that was SUPPOSED to be ash, right?) I had misunderstood that article I read, because I thought Andy and Rain were BOTH androids, but it turns out my assumption of two androids was accidentally correct.

I could nitpick for hours, but god I love these fucking movies. I was so so SO worried they would take it away from the androids, but they didn't. The part with Andy restarting in the red water room was so fucked up and so so so cool. I LOVE the way they were riding the line between androids being evil/fucked up/uncanny valley while also being good and, most importantly, worth going back for. It displays the situation of androids just as complex as it is. It makes me hopeful for future alien movies to see how they'll tackle those issues, because I was a little worried they would fall back into the "androids evil humans good" thing. My pipe dream is an official alien franchise live action movie with an android/human relationship, so that maybe it will kick the scene into high gear a bit and we'll get all sorts of new media with those themes.

Andy has joined the ranks with some of the best fictional androids I've ever read/watched/seen. That scene of him running and then standing motionless in the airlock made me feel like I was fucking ascending, like I was forgetting to breathe and getting lightheaded because I was so excited. The movie delivered both HAL and Bishop (for lack of a better comparison) in one person and fucking christ the actor did just a good job. The twitching while he restarted. Christ.

I won't sleep very well tonight but not because I'm scared who said that

I also really enjoyed the lore about the world these movies are set in. The mining colony was cool as fuck to see and I LOOVVVEEEE janky ass homemade spaceships that run like a square bicycle wheel. I did feel as if Rain didn't have enough information to be making the calls that she did (ie, not trusting the serum? Why not? Obv WE know not to, but how did she? If she been in a scene where she had CLEARLY seen the cage with the rat, this example would've been fine, but there were other little things like that that felt off. This was her first time in space, first time (presumably) in anti-grav situations, and she somehow managed extremely well, as if she was trained for it)

Anyway. Thats all ive got. I am emotionally spent and I cannot wait to get my grubby hands on a DVD. I heard rumors of another movie (Alien: Earth?) but that was on twitter which I quickly bailed on to avoid spoilers.

[we-keep-odd-hours]

tagged back by @hex6rcist! Thank you!

under a cut since I also rambled.

1. How are you!? I hope your day is going well.

ehhhh. I'm working not a great job, but its from home and if everyone is going to be insufferable, every single second i get of downtime I'm going to be on tumblr to stay sane.

2. What are you currently working on? Any little projects of any kind you’re excited to share?

I have an original novel in the works, I'm in the brutal final stages of tying off the loose ends of the rough draft (while this advice is some that I struggle to accept, to all writers I'd like to share this: the only thing that a first draft has to be is done.), I have two on-going fics (an Aliens one that's posted anonymously but tbh you could probably find it easily) and one of Diamondback's origin story.

Her origin story is more or less done (posting new chapters as I edit) except for a few plot points I'll make my decision on as I get to them in editing. There's details from my next project, a full follow up to the movie, that I kind of want to include in an epilogue to her story, since they're scenes/plot threads tied on her character arc.

3. What have you been watching lately? I just finished Righteous Gemstones and I need a new show lol.

I'm halfway through my rewatch of Hannibal right now, and I SHOULD rewatch West World next so I can finally watch the last season, but I've been itching to rewatch X-Files for a year now....the only problem being that X-Files is nine seasons, a mini series, two seasons of Millennium (IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND), and one season of Lone Gunmen (ALSO IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND). I never technically finished Millennium either, because they [spoiler] and it made me so angry at Chris Carter that I rage quit.

4. (A Near Dark one because how can I not) what’s your favorite small detail in the movie that other people might overlook?

When they first walk into the bar, Jesse kind of surveys the layout, but Diamondback immediately looks over to her right--at the bartender and the waitress, she then smiles, holds onto Jesse's arm and sets her head on his shoulder--and looks over the waitress again. Between that and her grin when the woman walked over, that whole weird thing seemed like some continuation of whatever game they were playing when she kissed the hitchhiker, which....guys, get a room. Homer and Mae are right there.

There are others, but this is the first one that came to mind.

5. What blog should I follow right now?

I'm bad at this; most people I've followed on here for literal years, or else picked up along the way when we had the same media obsession of the day.

6. Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I said it above already, but THE FIRST DRAFT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE GOOD, IT JUST HAS TO BE DONE.

7. If you could add one fantastical element to the real world and have it be a commonly accepted and known about thing what would it be? (Ie make Santa real)

This is asking for trouble: I believed in fairies at an age that was much, much too old to do so. I think it would be fun, or at least interesting if the fair folk were commonly known to exist. Dangerous, unwise, but fun.

8. What’s the last book you didn’t just read, you DEVOURED?

In the Valley of Sun by Andy Davidson. It was nasty, infuriating, full of characters I didn't like for but occasionally felt bad for, and it's about a wandering killer turned vampire living in an old RV just outside of Waco, TX in the 1980s. Yeah, that's what I thought too.

It was a break-neck paced mystery, not exactly of ''who'' did it, but of what happened, how did they do it, and are they going to get caught?

9. What are you most passionate about?

Art, literature, zoology. The order of those items changes frequently.

10. What do you think is your best quality?

oh I hate this question. Passion, I guess? It's not easy to get interested in something, but when I am, I can learn fast, pick up on details, and make weird connections. I'm literal minded and frequently get over-detailed on things, but I can think on multiple tracks at once and have caught things that even our Risk department at work didn't notice because they disrupted something.

[madamemaximoff06]

"Jack Goes Home" Ending Discussion/Analyse

TW for SA mentioned, Death, Suicide, Self-Harm, Miscarriage, Abuse also Spoilers for "Jack Goes Home" (I know that a lot of people in the Rory Culkin fandom have watched Jack Goes Home, but just in case someone hasn't watched it and doesn't want to be spoiled, don't read this post or maybe do if you don't care)

I've been rewatching Jack Goes Home and i think I now understand the ending, Kind of. I don't know if it's a theory if it's actually what the ending is supposed to be, i don't know because people analyze the ending differently.

So In the end of the movie when you find out that his mom and dad both died and he was just Hallucinating all of it when him and Shanda go back to the house and he opens the door and you hear the violin music playing (It could be the same music that Jack asked his mom to play for his dad at his funeral) and Jack says that he can't keep her (Her being his Mom) waiting and then he walks into the house and the doors slam behind him and i think that's means that Jack kills himself in the end of the movie, of course it's not shown but it is hinted at like when he is about to "kill" his mom on the side of the road and Shanda stops him and he says "He had to go (He either being maybe his Dad or his Twin, i'm not to sure) So does she, so do i", it sounds like in a way Jack doesn't have a say in whether or not he will die, he says it like he has to die along with his family, not like in the far future, it seems like it wold be sooner than later.

Also it's shown that as the movie goes on He slowly starts losing his mind after finding all the stuff in the attic about his childhood trauma of him being SA'd resurfacing, His Fiancee having a miscarriage and losing their unborn son and also figuring out that his mom was physically abusing his Dad and that he had a twin brother named Andy that his Dad killed thinking it was Jack because Jack wouldn't stop crying and his parents couldn't handle it so they accidentally killed the son they actually wanted (God that scene when his mom is yelling at him that it should have been Jack under the water instead of Andy, that it was suppose to be Jack, my heart absolutely broke) (I also think that all of this happens over the span of like a few weeks) so all this built up of trauma, something like this was bound to happen.

Another way that it's hinted at that he dies in the end is when he goes to the bar and the bartender reads his palm and he says that Jack is Already Dead, i thought that there was gonna be a big plot twist that he was dead the whole time and i was really wrong, but maybe instead of it being him physically dead, he could be mentally dead too that it could later lead to him being physically dead along with the scene with him slitting his throat in the bathroom before it going back to normal, that could be like a intrusive thought that he was having that was later acted upon and in the end it could have all happened in the attic because that is where everything resurfaced, him finding the locked box with the papers about the trial and his SA along with the tape with his brother on it, and not to mention when Jack is sleeping walking, He says that he’s in the attic, At first it was meaning that him finding all that stuff in the attic but it could be a foreshadowing moment for Jack’s fate, it wouldn't be totally out there to have it take place in the attic.

But of course this is all a Theory, All of this could just be me over analyzing it like i do with everything so i could totally be wrong, and a lot of people have interrupted the ending in different ways but this is just what i think happens and what i think makes the most sense.

The only thing i don't understand was what was the point behind Duncan's Character, Jack's neighbor that he was also hallucinating, was he supposed to represent something? If anyone knows, could someone explain it to me?

[howsitduud]

NICKEL BOYS REVIEW

Jesus Christ finally done with all the Best Picture nominees. I wanted to save this one for last because, out of all the nominees I haven't seen before, this one caught my attention the most, most notably for its style of filmmaking. Having a serious drama about segregation and child abuse be told through the point of view of the Nickel Boys themselves is a strong choice to center the movie around, and I had high hopes for it.

It was just ok.

Yeah, I'm sorry, this one didn't click with me as much as I wanted and hoped it would. This is incredibly surprising especially because any review I've seen of the movie is incredibly positive, with most journalists and people on Letterboxd and IMDB giving it glowing reviews.

Purely based on the directing, cinematography, and editing, it's easy to see why this movie is so well-regarded. Like I said earlier, the POV shots where you see Nickel Academy through Elwood's eyes is a great way to tell this story, since it's presented as if all of this is happening to you, the viewer. Usually when people say a movie is "immersive," they're just saying a buzz word, but it's definitely true in this instance. The editing is also great, swapping between Elwood and Turner so seamlessly it took me a while to notice in some cases. That first scene when we meet Turner is especially strong, since the entire movie up until that point was from Elwood's perspective. Suddenly seeing the same scene again, but this time through the perspective of Turner was a nice surprise the first time I watched it.

Unfortunately, this is where most of my compliments end because I was just not a big of the actual writing. It's good, there's no doubt about that, but I just feel like these characters could've been written better. We know that Elwood is the Andy Dufresne-esque character who wants to try and get out and we know that Turner is the more pessimistic character who learns to confide in Elwood, but a lot of their character traits are told to us rather than shown. Ironically enough, the side characters, like the other students and the oppressive professors, are more fleshed out in this regard than the characters who we're literally looking through the eyes of. My favorite scene in the movie is the boxing scene mostly because the visual language of the film is able to thrive, and that's what it does best. The dialogue-heavy scenes weren't as compelling as I think the writer was intending them to be.

With all that said, none of this criticism applies to the ending, which is absolutely stellar.

SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE FROM THIS POINT ONWARD.

The plot twist at the end that Elwood died when he and Turner tried to escape from NA, and the adult Elwood we keep flashing forward to is actually Turner assuming Elwood's name is a really strong ending. It reframes all those other flash-forward scenes and it helps in letting me connect more with younger Elwood and Turner because it reaffirms how strong their bond was.

But, even thought this ending is really, really good, I don't think I can be able to come back to the movie for a rewatch. A great ending can save an otherwise mediocre movie, but that just means I have to watch a mediocre movie to get to that great ending. This movie did click with a lot of people, and more power to it. I'm so glad it's getting more recognition since this movie is one of the more low-key of the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture.

For me, though, this movie is a 6/10, an above average movie and not much else.

[theflixdiaryproject]

"excuse me, can we adjust the attitude? don't make me feed you to one of the models." - Nigel

in The Devil Wears Prada, fresh journalism grad Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) lands a job at the elite fashion magazine Runway, working as an assistant to the fierce and demanding editor-in-chief, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). navigating Miranda’s impossible demands and the high-stakes fashion world, Andy soon faces a tough choice between career ambition and personal values.

read my review below (may contain spoilers):

rewatched July 13th, 2024 on netflix

alright, let me start by saying The Devil Wears Prada is a personal favourite! it’s that magical blend of snark, sass, and style that just pulls me in, sweeps me up, and keeps me hooked from start to finish. I could watch this movie a thousand times over (and believe me, I have) because it’s just so effortlessly entertaining. just, imagine stepping into a world where people are throwing around couture like confetti, and then add Meryl Streep strutting around with this aura that screams “bow down” — it’s simply delicious. the chemistry between Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway is chef’s kiss. Meryl’s performance as Miranda Priestly is just iconic; she doesn’t even need to raise her voice to give the chills. it’s all in that steely stare and deadpan delivery — one arched eyebrow from her, and I'm ready to drop everything and do her bidding ahaha. Anne Hathaway as Andy? perfectly relatable. she starts as this endearingly clueless newbie, and I just can’t help but root for her as she fumbles through Miranda’s endless demands and insane hours. by the end, I was practically cheering her on from my couch, pom-poms and all!

but you know what I love most? this isn’t some cookie-cutter rom-com with the girl chasing after a guy. oh no, no, no. this movie’s about something bigger — finding yourself, standing up for what you want, and figuring out how far you’re willing to go. there’s something refreshing about a film where the main focus is on ambition, career, and self-discovery, rather than love triangles or dreamy proposals. and can we talk about the wardrobe? the fashion in this movie is like eye candy. I mean, I’m not exactly about to start wearing stilettos in the office, but watching Andy’s transformation and all those outfits? it’s a visual treat. I can’t leave out Emily Blunt, either. she’s the sassiest, most hilariously cynical assistant ever, and every line she delivers is pure gold. and Stanley Tucci as Nigel? he’s that fabulous friend everyone needs in their life. the whole cast just bounces off each other so well, and it’s that chemistry that keeps the movie feeling so alive. honestly, it’s like a masterclass in making a “chick flick” (though I feel that doesn’t do it justice). it’s both light-hearted and unexpectedly thought-provoking. it’ll make you laugh, gasp, and even get a little misty-eyed by the end. and if you’ve ever worked under a tough boss, you’ll feel all the emotions!

final verdict: I totally loved it!!

maturity rating: 13+ genre: comedy, drama duration: 1h 49m (109 mins) country: USA, France language: English, French screenplay: Aline Brosh McKenna based on: the novel The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger major cast: Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Adrian Grenier, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci

[vmures]

I was tagged by both @keldjinfae and @oldefashioned to post my top 10 (recent) movies. It took me a bit to find time to reply. It's also an extra challenge because I am a lot slower to watch things these days (in my teens and twenties I spent a lot of time at the movies, but these days not so much).

In no particular order here are ten recent(ish) movies that I enjoyed. I figured recentish would be within the last five years.

Knives Out - saw this one at the theaters with family and loved it. It's tightly written and kept me guessing though I did figure it out before the reveal. It was also just a whole lot of fun.

Knives Out: The Glass Onion - watched this one when it was released to streaming with family. I adore Janelle Monae and she shines so beautifully in this film. Daniel Craig is also a delight and it was great fun to meet his husband and see the all-star cameos they included in the beginning. Like the first film, it's tightly written and a very fun romp.

The Old Guard - I only just got around to watching this over the past weekend and holy shit, it was so damn good. Joe and Nicky are wonderful, and Andy is gorgeous and bad ass beyond belief. Not gonna lie, I can easily watch Charlize Theron all day long. But it's even better when it's a well done movie with an interesting plot and a great cast. This is one I will be rewatching often.

Barbie - it has it's issues, but it was also a powerhouse of a film in a lot of ways. It resonated deeply when I watched it at the theater with family. Like many who played with the dolls growing up, I have a complicated relationship with the dolls and my memory of them, and I know I am not alone in that. I was surprised that the movie touched on that common thread and that it was so much more than just a nostalgic money grab. I think this might have been the first post-pandemic movie I saw in theaters.

Godzilla Minus One - Saw this one in the theaters with family. It's a beautifully done film and a great nod to the original Godzilla movies. The themes are heavy, but handled wonderfully. It's a very powerful film in a lot of ways and captures a lot of the issues post-WWII Japan faced. Highly recommend, but if you are a crier like I am, keep a box of tissues nearby.

Civil War (2024) - I saw this one in the theater with family as well. I'm still not entirely sure if I'd watch it a second time because it was really intense and horrifying in a lot of ways. But it is a beautifully done film and Kirsten Dunst's performance in particular was spectacular.

Love and Monsters - Watched this on streaming when it came out and ended up buying a copy. I adore Dylan O'Brien, so that got me interested. I also like action movies and monster movies. This was just a really fun and sweet film all around.

Raya and the Last Dragon - Just saw this one over the past weekend. It got pretty panned, but I found it to be a charming and fun little film. Definitely something I'd be willing to watch again.

Heart of Stone - another one I watched recently. Gal Gadot is delightful to watch in this fun spy action movie. It was a great popcorn film.

Free Guy - Watched this one on streaming a while back. Ryan Reynolds and Joe Keery are both so much fun in this movie. It's such a delightful little film.

Not tagging anyone because it took most of my spoons to think of 10 movies from the last five years that I had both seen and enjoyed. lol

If you want to play along, consider yourself tagged. Feel free to tag me in your response. It's fun to see what others like.

[wontlasttwodays]

Honestly, the best thing about ep 5 was how happy rick makes michonne and i still do not understand the decision to jump 6 YEARS into the future after the bridge, actually it is kind of amazing that out of many twd and gimples strange writing choises rick and michonne's relationship remains unscaithed even in the mothership show, i've been rewatching on a loop all of their scenes and it is incredible that there is always very clear emotional and logical throughline in their relationship. In the words of the famous rick grimes, how did we get so lucky?

Hey Anon,

We got lucky because we fell in love with characters who were also loved by their talented actors. And even as their careers grew and moved on they stayed committed to only telling the story they wanted to tell.

Artists say make art for yourself. Write the story, make the movie that you'd want to watch. That is what The Ones Who Live is. It is the moments, the conversations, the stories, the conflict that Andy and Danai wanted to see. You can tell in the "behind the scenes" interviews with Gimple when he's uncomfortable with the story, it's not what he would have written. Take EP5 where he points out that the engagement/commitment ceremony "was driven by Danai as a story idea."

I greatly appreciate Gimple giving credit where it is due, but I think it shows the difference between a Gimple production vetted by AMC executives and our series which was protected by Danai at every level. [I think Andy was fine with anything just as long as he got to makeout with his TV Wife in every episode.]

I'm allowing this mini-series to erase seasons 9 through 11 for me. Because ultimately I felt betrayed by the writer's room. Every single storyline either abused Michonne's humanity, called into question her choices, and subjected her to cruelty unmatched by any other character. The most poignant example - compare how the community came together for pregnant Lori, pregnant Maggie, and not for pregnant Michonne. How everyone questioned her leadership. Later as a send off for the character, how she was entrapped and subjected to horrible hallucinations of what if she [was a completely different person, with completely different values and motivations] and was a Savior. THAT was her send off, plus leave your kids during a building war with the Saviors.

The TWD writers loved making an example of Michonne. Forcing her to fight harder for community, acceptance, because she was a strong, Black, female leader. I think part of the time jump was avoiding her vulnerability. Her exhaustion at feeding, raising, and being emotionally available to her kids [or not]. To be fair, they did the same with Maggie, can't be in mourning, can't be motherly. If boys can't relate then it can't be in the show.

That realness about Michonne, the need for love, EMOTIONAL safety, and joy, while simultaneously being the best fighter, survivor, leader - that is what Danai wanted to give us.

And even further, vulnerability, emotional availability is a strength in TOWL. Jadis. Pearl. Rick. They make bad decisions to run away from their vulnerability. But emotional connection and the need for it "cannot be denied." Michonne said that in EP4. Jadis and Gabriel showed that in EP5.

TOWL is in dialogue with the TWD mothership. It's saying living for our heros is more than safety. more than toughening up through trauma. more than moral tests of right and wrong. more than soldiering, rebuilding, working, farming, shopping.

Living is also tender, fragile, soft. Everyone, in every age, including Rick and Michonne deserve to prioritize being cherished, dear, vulnerable.

The CRM treating vulnerability as the enemy is their weakness (as seen in Fear the Walking Dead and The World Beyond) and will be their downfall.

[may-coops]

People I want to know better

tagged by @eemamminy-art ‼️tysm for the tag!! I'm not as chatty as I'd like to be on tumblr so this is a first sdkgbdsgjbd ty!!!!

last song: let's just say. I am not immune to Chappell Roan performing good luck babe at the VMAs

favorite color: Red and black, I was a shadow kid teehee

currently watching: rewatching haikyuu for the 2nd time and slowly working my way through dungeon meshi. can I just say. the yuri is yuri-ing

last movie: I got sick a few days ago and rewatched howl's moving castle... I'm def inspired for the next comm I need to finish. also wao kid me really completely missed the anti war elements of that movie huh

sweet/spicy/savory: savory (except pastries. sweet pastries slap)

current obsession: I have my foot in like 4 ships where The Blonde One dies rn and I'm very normal about them...... biggest obsession is probably Sadu Dotharl and all my delusional lore I've made for her, most of which has never been written down and just vibes in my brain

last thing i googled: "ackerman bond" I was trying to explain the twilight-ass imprinting the ackermans from aot do to a friend😭😭 it was a part of my eruri propaganda lmao

Tagging:

@necromeowncy @cryptcombat @yggdrsyl @asphyxiated-muffin @andi-tiucs

no pressure to join🫡 if you wanna, have fun with it!!

[cameforb99stayingforkdramas]

I'm posting sthg that I posted last year on my Instagram. Back then, I couldn't find many srk fangirls on Tumblr, but now I do. So, sharing it here:

I don't exactly remember when I was introduced to Shah Rukh Khan, but growing up in Kerala, he was the only Bollywood actor that people talked about. I could see pictures of him everywhere outside home. I still vividly remember seeing a Sunfeast ad poster of him at my aunt's house. Women around me liked him. It was my sister who introduced me to most of his films through her flawless narration. I used to visualize the scenes as she narrated. It was only much later that I actually saw most of his movies. Over time, I became obsessed with him. I learnt and started to love everything about him - the language he spoke and the city he lived in. Everybody knew about my obsession so much so that my classmates used to wish me on his birthday. I still get excited for his birthday more than mine. I used to promote his movies at home just so that dad would take me to the cinema. I don't know why I like him so much, but I do. Just like Shah Rukh mentioned in one of his interviews that he's an employee of the myth of Shah Rukh Khan, the Shah Rukh I love and adore is also a mythical man, not the living breathing Shah Rukh. He was the first medium through which I tried to make sense of heterosexual romantic relationships. I thought I was pretty much over him once I started college, but all it took me was one rewatch of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to be back. Andy Sambergs and Song Joong-kis may come and go, but Shah Rukh Khan is here to stay! Happy Birthday, Shah Rukh Khan! 🥰 Congratulations on being one of the very few men that I respect.

Your forever fangirl 🤭