Ryan Coogler has pretty much always had the reputation as a talented (if not great) filmmaker despite some of the shortcomings of his films. The one unquestionably disappointing part of his career is that he has been stuck in IP hell. The first film that can be considered a truly original film (depending on how you classify Fruitvale) from Coogler was his fifth film. Hopefully its success means he will no longer be caught up in the shenanigans of Hollywood nonsense.
The biggest problem with the Terminator franchise overall is that of the six films, only two of the films were made by a notably talented director. They keep putting hacks in there and get a variety of the mediocre results. You can give this franchise credit for one thing: they keep making mistakes in brand new ways.
There is nothing I could say about John Carpenter that could be better put than what Martin Scorsese said about him:
I cannot say that I have ever been a huge fan of Hellboy. But I simply keep watching the movies. I will eventually add the animated films to this list.
The Star Trek films are truly fascinating. There are three different and distinct eras of films but there are deep connections to what came before them in some way. These different eras are not just different in terms of the casts but also in the vision and tone of what Star Trek looks like. It was a very unexpected pleasure to go back to the beginning and watch them all in order. Continue reading Ranking the Star Trek Films
Films to Re-Watch: Barking Dogs Never Bite
I imagine my journey with Bong was not an uncommon one: I saw Snowpiercer and Okja first and then saw Parasite. After not being wowed by those first two films I saw, Parasite felt eye-opening. I then went back and watched everything he did, and none of them hit as hard as Parasite did (but I still mostly liked them). And there I sat for a half-decade before I ever revisited Bong again. I have finally done so, and here is how I am feeling about his films now.
The James Bond series is one of the most iconic film series in the history of cinema. It has been going pretty much for over six decades. There is a lot of mediocrity to be found in these films, but some of are quite good. It was also genuinely quite surprising to see which ones I liked and disliked. I spent a long time going back and watching all these. Enjoy.
James Bond villains can become relatively infamous in pop culture. It was pretty jarring to learn in my James Bond journey though that most of them are not that interesting. Here are the best ones.
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Year of Release: 2021 Continue reading #JamesBondFiles: No Time to Die
Director: Sam Mendes
Year of Release: 2015
Should you watch it? Sorry, but yes.
The Reel World 