Skyfall (2012) Bond film no. 23, Daniel Craig’s third. I watched this in the theaters back in 2012, so this is the last rewatch of my James Bond run. Back then my main complaint was that Bond’s plan in the last thirty minutes of the movie was terrible. The same complaint stands even now, especially given the eventual outcome of that plan. Make no mistake: the entire defending the house sequence is one of the best things about the movie from an action standpoint, but tactically it was terrible.
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Aug 2021
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First, the spoiler-free review: On 6 Aug 2021 10:27am I wrote: THE SUICIDE SQUAD spoiler-free review: great, fun, violent, hilarious, possibly best of DCEU so far trailers have spoiled waaaay too much of this movie first act was ok, second act felt a bit meh, third act was great hard to comment on actor performances without spoiling things, but Daniela Melchior was great and Idris Elba took the role seriously there is a post-credits scene Full review on the blog later
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THE SUICIDE SQUAD spoiler-free review:
- great, fun, violent, hilarious, possibly best of DCEU so far
- trailers have spoiled waaaay too much of this movie
- first act was ok, second act felt a bit meh, third act was great
- hard to comment on actor performances without spoiling things, but Daniela Melchior was great and Idris Elba took the role seriously
- there is a post-credits scene
Full review on the blog later
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Bond film no. 22, Daniel Craig’s second outing. I actually watched this back in 2008, but apparently I wasn’t super impressed (and I wish I wrote more back then lol). I suspect I didn’t really like it because this movie is actually a direct sequel to Casino Royale which I hadn’t seen until this year. It picks up on several hanging plot threads, and some of the characters appear again, and Bond in this film is primarily motivated by anger over the events of the previous film.
Jul 2021
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Some stuff I’ve watched lately. Spoilers for Gunpowder Milkshake and MotU: Revelation are marked. Casino Royale (2006) Bond film no. 21, and the first for Daniel Craig. The final era in this James Bond run, looking forward to it. Casino Royale is new to me, but I’ve seen two of Craig’s Bond films, so I have an idea of what to expect: a more serious and much less campy James Bond, grim and determined.
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I’m here for the tiny Stay Pufts at 1:32
Ghostbusters Afterlife Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKe5XTrThj8
#movies
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I used to do these “Watching Lately” posts to talk about movies/tv/books I’d recently consumed, but for a while I folded up the reviews into the weeknotes and sometimes via short notes but the reviews have been getting longer so I guess I’m bring the “Watching Lately” tag and series of posts back. Die Another Day (2002) Bond film no. 20 and Brosnan’s final appearance. The main question for me going in was: have I actually watched this before in the theatre?
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Warning: Spoilers for the just-ended season of Loki at the end of this. I have a spoiler-free review of that if you’d like. The World Is Not Enough (1999) Bond film no. 19 and Brosnan’s third. Pretty sure I saw this in the theaters when it came out, but for the life of me could not recall any of the plot details at all. Turns out it was because the plot was a bit unnecessarily convoluted.
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A couple of movies we watched during our Saturday gaming session yesterday:
- America the Motion Picture (2021). Alternate history retelling of American revoluion, complete and utter nonsense. Good fun and we had a few laughs, but I really hope no American takes it seriously.
- Ice Road (2021). Random Liam Neeson action flick that we actual started last Saturday. Somehow they managed to make a two hour movie about driving a truck across the ice. I thought it would be better than it was because it had Laurence Fishburn, but I guess that’s not really a good basis. One of those films where I wouldn’t have minded sitting through it on cable, if I was busy doing something else.
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We finally return to the MCU films, a full two years after the last film was released! Breaking a decade-long tradition, I am unable to watch it in theaters this time (and probably won’t get to watch any of the others this year in theaters either), but at least we are moving forward now, onto the next phase! Spoiler-free review first, then spoilery bits follow afterwards. incredibly good as an action movie, great fight sequences and set pieces and chases etc.
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Last night I watched Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Bond film no. 18 and Brosnan’s second. Also the first one I actually saw in theaters when it came out so officially my first rewatch! That said, it was 24 years ago so while I remember the general overarching plot (Jonathan Pryce playing a multibillionaire media mogul inciting a war between China and the UK to profit off the news), I have forgotten many of the finer details.
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The Bond film reviews were starting to get a bit long for Twitter/notes, so a full blog post it is. Goldeneye (1995). Bond film no. 17 and first for Brosnan. The films are starting to look “modern”, but might just be because this is the first Bond film to come out after I graduated high school and that’s what I see as “modern”. I didn’t see this in theaters when it first came out though.
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Saturday gaming group decided to do a movie watch-along while we played and randomly settled on Under Siege (1992) for some reason. I’d never seen it before and several times I said “Isn’t this just Die Hard on a boat?” and apparently that was a universal consensus. Very 90s. Unsurprisingly this is already Seagal’s best-rated movie and has a surprising number of familiar and even good actors, including Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, and Colm Meaney (Star Trek’s O’Brien)
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License to Kill (1989): Bond film no 16, Dalton’s second and last outing is much darker and yet weaker than the first one. The first one where Bond goes rogue, driven by vengeance instead of duty. Unremarkable theme song. Villain is a drug smuggler; I guess with the collapse of the USSR they couldn’t have another Russia-centered plot. More actors look familiar as we near the 90s. Notable are a young Benicio del Toro playing a henchman and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (known for playing Shang Tsung. Dalton’s performance is mixed, and for some reason he reminds me of Sir Patrick Stewart in some scenes. Too bad he couldn’t have had a better sendoff as Bond.
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The Living Daylights (1987): Bond film no. 15 and first of only two Dalton entries. More 80s music theme song, this time by A-ha. Much more serious in tone compared to Connery / Moore. John Rhys-Davies is here, years before Sliders or LOTR. No sci-fi mad scientist stuff this time, straight-up spy stuff (more or less). Assassinations, defections, Russia’s internal politics, Afghan rebels, weapons, smuggling, drug deals, faked deaths, etc. Might be a tiny bit too long. Surprisingly, I liked this one!
Jun 2021
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Was stuck in a waiting room long enough to watch Downsizing (2017) on cable. Interesting sci-fi concept (miniaturizing humans to reduce consumption and avoid climate change) serving as background for a mediocre Matt Damon story.
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In the wee hours earlier for some reason I decided to watch Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) while playing online boardgames with friends. It was the only one of the Bayverse films I hadn’t seen yet, and now that I have that seemed like a good decision. Too long, ridiculous plot, and once again the Decepticons barely distinguishable from each other.
The story needs a lot of suspension of disbelief. Lots of spectacle as you’d expect from Michael Bay. Surprised they managed to get Anthony Hopkins for this. John Turturro is still around, but serving only as plot exposition. They decided to introduce a new female lead that looked as close to Megan Fox as possible.
The movie ends with Cybertron crashed into Earth, so you kind of have to suspend your belief in physics as well. Also, apparently Earth is Unicron! WTH lol.
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Watched A View To A Kill (1985), Bond film no. 14. Moore is showing his age, luckily this is his last entry. Very 80s theme song by Duran Duran. Christopher Walken is here, as a Bond villain with a plan straight out of Superman (1978). Tanya Roberts plays a young Bond girl just 14 years before playing a middle-aged mom on That 70s Show. Random young Dolph Lundgren cameo! Kind of a ridiculous street chase scene through San Francisco. Overall not the best of Moore’s run.
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Earlier today I watched Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021), now out on Netflix (PH, not sure about elsewhere). I don’t normally do full blog posts for movies anymore, but I’m a big Rurouni Kenshin fan, and I didn’t have much commentary on record for the first three live action films, so I figured I would write some words mostly about this new film, but maybe also a bit about the first three as well.
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Yesterday I saw Octopussy (1983), Bond film no. 13. Another grounded entry with no fantastical elements, with the plot centered around geopolitical concerns. Some interesting action sequences, but overall, but I found most of the movie unremarkable. India shown as an exotic place (w/c I suppose it was to Westerners at that time) with elephants and firebreathers and whatnot all over. There was one scene where the bad guy appears to have broken a genuine Faberge egg but no one said anything lol.
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For Your Eyes Only (1981): Bond film no. 12. After the sci-fi fantasy of Moonraker, this one is more grounded and down-to-Earth, a callback to early Connery adventures. No megamalomaniacs to defeat, just foreign agents and mercs. The opening sequence pays homage to the earlier pre-Moore films, acknowledging the death of Tracy Bond and killing off a villain that looks suspiciously like arch-nemesis Blofeld. The opening song is pretty good. The rest of the film was ok, if a bit forgettable. I liked the rock climbing scene, but the ski chase and car chases felt like things we’ve seen before. Also, Moore is starting to show his age.
Melina Havelock (portrayed by Carole Bouquet) reminded me a lot of DC’s Huntress - a crossbow-wielding woman out for revenge
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Watched Moonraker (1979). Spectacular opening sequence. Villain reminds me of Tyrion Lannister. California -> Venice -> Rio de Janeiro. Mandatory canal chase while in Venice, obviously. Lots of of product placement. A bad guy tried to ambush 007 with a KENDO STICK. Have they heard of guns? Comically indestructible assassin Jaws appears again, and actually has a character arc this time. First half of the movie was kind of meh, but the last third of the film with the space station and the laser battles and the ridiculous villain plan kind of won me over with how campy it all was.
May 2021
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Watched Mortal Kombat (2021). Some friends tried to tell me not to waste my time, but joke’s on them I enjoyed it anyway! In hindsight, the plot was pretty flimsy, but I enjoyed the fights. It’s basically what you’d expect lol.
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Bond film no. 10: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The best Moore installment so far. Excellent opening sequence. Austria; Cairo, Egypt; Sardinia, Italy. 007 and Triple-X have great chemistry. Jaws has to be the most unstoppable Bond villain / henchman. Stromberg’s Atlantis reminds me of the Legion of Doom’s base in the old Superfriends cartoon. Actually, I think his evil plan might be the best one so far as well.I wonder if I can get through the rest of these before No Time to Die actually comes out lol.
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Earlier today I watched The Mitchells vs the Machines on Netflix. It’s a well-done, fantastic, ridiculous, fun, clever, family-friendly adventure, I really enjoyed it.
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Bond movie no. 9: The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). Christopher Lee was a Bond villain! Beirut, Macau, Hong Kong, Bangkok. An Asian girl is introduced just for the pun in her name. Comic relief southern sheriff dude is back from the previous film. Final fight scene with Nick Nack was ridiculous. As per usual, Bond gets captured and the bad guy explains everything. Still not used to Roger Moore in the role.
Apr 2021
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Last night I accidentally watched most of the latter part of Green Hornet (2011) starring Seth Rogen. I never new he portrayed this character! Movie was reasonable popcorn action-comedy.
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Today I decided to watch Rocky (1976) for some reason. The quintessential sports film, but I’ve never seen it before. Stallone looks only a bit younger than I remember him from the 90s. Apollo Creed is that dude from the Mandalorian! Surprised at the ending.
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Bond film no. 8: Live and Let Die (1973).
Moore feels a lot more “generic white guy” than Connery was. Maybe I just need to get used to him. Young Jane Seymour is here! There’s a bayou chase scene here that goes on just a bit too long and had superfluous cop characters. All the voodoo stuff felt weirdly out of place. There’s a character named Tee Hee! Most ridiculous villain death so far.
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Needed something light to watch in the background, so I watched Airplane! (1980). It’s the kind of movie where they just stuff in as many gags as possible, every throwaway line and even stuff happening in the background is a gag.
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Bond movie no. 7: Diamonds are Forever (1971). Connery’s hair starting to go a bit gray in his last appearance. More Blofeld than I’d expected (harhar). Space laser! Plenty O’Toole seemed pointless, there just to die. A lot of cheesy lines from the assassin henchment.
These movies would be a lot shorter if they just shot Bond whenever they caught him. The action scenes in all these old Bond films always feel so jarring compared to modern ones. Limited by the technology of their time I guess.
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Bond movie no. 6: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). Only Lazenby appearance. He was fine, I suppose. Tracy probably best Bond girl so far. I liked the ski scenes more than Thunderball’s underwater scenes.
Loose continuity. Was confused by Blofeld not recognizing Bond after they already met in the previous movie. Apparently, the novel order was reversed. Also, did Bond just leave him stuck in a tree assuming he was dead after hunting him relentlessly?
Mar 2021
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Bond movie no. 5: You Only Live Twice (1967). Such Japan. Much wow. Cringe at trying to pass Bond off as Japanese. Introduction of secret volcano lair trope. Ninjas with guns! First screen appearance of the head of SPECTRE, inspiration for Dr Evil.
That endgame scene of ninjas invading the secret volcano lair reminded me of the Simpsons episode You Only Move Twice. Bond’s “wife” never named despite being only Bond girl to survive the movie.
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See also: Justice League spoiler-free review (2017) This is basically a movie that’s more than 3 years old, we’re not holding back on spoilers here. plot basically follows the same beats as the theatrical cut except this time we have a lot more team setup time (one of my criticisms from the previous version), giving the characters stronger backgrounds, especially Cyborg and Flash Ray Fisher was right to complain; in this version he’s one of the important characters of the ensemble while he was basically a minor guest character in the theatrical cut more DC characters make appearances in this version, among them Ryan Choi, DeSaad, Granny Goodness, Martian Manhunter, the Joker and of course Darkseid himself I accept this version as a better version of the original theatrical release and is my new DCEU headcanon it never would have worked in theaters anyway, given the four hour runtime.
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Bond movie no. 4: Thunderball (1965). This is the first one I didn’t like very much. Too many boring/confusing underwater parts. There’s a jetpack! Wasn’t there an atomic bomb aboard that boat when it exploded? And did they just leave the guy who helped Domino escape floating alone in the ocean?
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Bond movie no. 3: Goldfinger (1964). Lot of the classic Bond tropes introduced. Bad guy’s plan was actually pretty good, even had the escape contingency. Disappointed he did not have an actual gold finger. Great fight between Bond and Oddjob.
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James Bond movie no. 2: To Russia With Love (1963). This one actually had more bits that felt like actual espionage. And Bond didn’t need to get captured this time!
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Haven’t seen any of the pre-Brosnan Bond films, so I started today with Dr No (1962). Pretty good, but if this were a modern film, I’d have expected some kind of plot twist with Honey Rider, like maybe she would have turned out to be the actual Dr No
Feb 2021
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Today is the last day of February. Tomorrow, we march on. The world: Biden ordered his first military strike last week. America is back, etc. This past week, embrassingly our local police and anti-drug agency got into a shootout against each other near the Ever Gotesco mall in Quezon City. Both sides claim they were doing a buy-bust, which is impossible. As usual, there is little transparency about what actually happened, and many promises of “impartial” probes and investigations.
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For some reason, I watched Space Sweepers, a Korean sci-fi movie on Netflix. Fun ride, fairly entertaining, pretty good setpieces and special effects. (They are so far ahead of the local film industry.) Plot a bit predictable. Villain made no sense.
Jan 2021
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2021 movie no. 3: World War Z (2013). Pretty typical action movie I think, entertaining enough. Should have watched at the start of the pandemic.
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2021 #movies no 2: The Godfather part 2 (1974). This is two movies rolled into one. Still pretty good, but I think I liked the singular focus of the first one more.
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2021 movies no. 1: The Godfather (1972). Everyone is so young! Such a well-told gangster tale. Looking forward to the sequel
Dec 2020
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Finally watched #WonderWoman1984. Maybe don’t think too much about what’s going on in the movie. My headcanon is that the only reason it takes place in 1984 is because it’s pre-crisis
Oct 2020
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I watched Girl Next Door (2004) on Prime Video. Mostly for Elisha Cuthbert lol.
Sep 2020
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October is imminent! There are two distractions I’m looking forward to in the coming month. The first one is Inktober, which I’ve been doing since 2016. Basically it’s just to do 30 ink drawings in October, one per day. There are some official prompts, which I’ll probably follow. I haven’t really done any serious sketching in a while, maybe this will help me get back into the groove.
Aug 2020
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This last week was weird. I feel like I didn’t really get much done in terms of productivity, yet I don’t feel I was unproductive. A very relaxed and chill week. Once again a tiny bit of work done this past week, some fixes, including to side projects. I also spent some time preparing for some events next weekend. Although I wasn’t productive this week, I did outline a bit of a roadmap of new features for one of my side projects, hopefully I can get into that in the coming weeks!
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Bill and Ted Face the Music is a most excellent sequel
Jul 2020
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My country: There are days when I have to consciously temper my rage at the shenanigans of this government. I can’t write about them today. My stuff: This week’s pandemic notes. Had a busy work week again; at the same time I also picked up an older charity project where the client asked for UI updates. Had issues with running the old code, and it was small enough, so I decided to rewrite it in a new tech stack.
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My country: Friday afternoon the House of Representatives voted to deny the franchise application of the nation’s biggest broadcaster ABS-CBN. This despite all agencies of the executive testifying that the company had no violations. Justifications cited were mostly personal reasons. The Palace claims they remained neutral on this issue, but no one really believes that. Probably not even then. What now, Philippines? My stuff: This week’s pandemic notes.