Wow, who would've guessed it? Another Edgar Wright movie. Something else nobody would have guessed: this movie rocks. Hard. Going into it I wasn’t really expecting all that much to happen other than “uptight cop gets sent to countryside as part of a ‘promotion’ and tries to fit in.” And that was about half of the movie. But he doesn’t really begin to loosen up until the last quarter of the movie. As a result of him staying uptight for as long as he did, he and the village police, minus the sheriff, are able to uncover and take down a village-wide conspiracy that’s obsessed with winning the Village of the Year Award. So much so that they’re willing to kill anyone who threatens to take away that award from them. From the beginning of the movie, I don’t think anyone would have been able to guess what the ending of the movie would be. Like I said earlier, I genuinely thought that it was going to be a movie about a big city cop in a small town cleaning up the place. I mean I guess that’s the plot of the movie, but not in the way I expected it to unfold. However, this doesn’t mean I’m not a fan of everything this movie does. Because I am. Edgar Wright does a fantastic job of subverting the viewer’s expectations and setting up plot points from even the very beginning of the movie (the crossword bit). It’s a great comedy, a great action movie, and a great thriller all-in-one which I imagine wasn’t easy to pull off. Love it. 9.5/10
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"Persepolis" a 2007 animated movie based off of Marjane Satrapi's book of the same name. It was directed by Satrapi, as well as Vincent "Winshluss" Paronnaud, a French comic and artist. It follows Satrapi's childhood and adolescence, from her innocent youth as a child prophet wannabe, all the way until her move to Paris as a young adult. It deals with topics like war, xenophobia, and death, as Marjane tries to live her life in Iran and different parts of Austria. In Iran, Black Friday, the Iranian Revolution, and the Iran-Iraq War all take place when Marji is growing up. To help Marji live a better life, her parents send her to Austria to live in a convent, where she is eventually kicked out and begins living with different people. As news of the War spreads outside, Iranians are looked on very unfavorably by the Austrians, with people outcasting Marjane because of her history in Iran. While living in Iran, Marjane experiences the death of her uncle by execution, whom she was very close to. She loses one of her best friends, Neda Baba-Levy, in a bombing that took out her entire building. Satrapi and Paronnaud did a great job adapting the book into a movie. It depicts Satrapi's different stages of childhood and adolescence very clearly, and it's pretty easy to see how she changed and what events changed her. As a child, Marjane Satrapi is full of life and wonder. She's happy, she's young, and all she wants to do is be a prophet and help people. As she gets older, we see that kind of innocence very quickly fade into Marji's adolescence. She begins thinking for herself and exploring her individuality, and starts listening to Western music, especially punk rock. She carries these characteristics with her well through the end of the movie, praising themes of rebellion and freedom. I thought this movie was pretty good. I think that even though it moves through her life very fast, it paces itself pretty well and it's very easy to follow. The film was originally made in French and then dubbed in English, so the voices usually didn't match what it looked like the characters were saying, but other than that I don't really have any issues with this movie. I think it does its job well, and that's telling the story of a little girl who was forced to grow up a little too fast. 8/10I've got a bad habit of getting on my phone during movies. Even when I'm watching a movie in the theater, I'll turn the brightness all the way down and check a couple apps before putting it down for the next 30 ish minutes. Edgar Wright's 2010 masterpiece "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" was so incredibly eye-catching and entertaining I don't even think I thought about my phone the entire time. I watched it in two parts, which was a mistake on my end, but this is one of the most energetic and enjoyable movies I think I've ever seen. One of my favorite parts about it is the fact that the actors are all incredibly dramatic the entire time, despite the sheer chaos happening in the world. Another thing I noticed is the action. When Scott fights, he seldom uses just brute force like in the fight with Matthew Patel. He often uses the world around him and specific weaknesses of his enemies in order to gain the upper hand or win entirely, like using Lucas Lee's ego against him, and tricking Todd Ingram into drinking dairy as a vegan. I will note that as the movie reaches the end, the pacing picks up a little bit too fast, and it kind of pushes one of the fights, the one with the Katayanagi twins, to be a little bit too short. Other than that, I loved every second of this film's strange, quirky chemistry between two characters that didn't want to admit they had feelings for each other. 9.5/10I like to call this movie the British version of "Zombieland," because that's essentially what it is. Minus all the guns. It's a horror-comedy style zombie movie directed by Edgar Wright and released in 2004, directed in the style of an action movie. There's suspense and action, directed and acted in the most Britishly reluctant way possible. The movie follows a man named Shaun as he tries to reconcile his relationship with his (for most of the movie ex) girlfriend, Liz. He lives on the outskirts of London with his two roommates, Ed and Pete, the latter of which becomes infected and killed off pretty early on in the movie. Shaun and Ed slowly make their way to where Liz lives, along with her two friends Dianne and David, to pick them up and get to safety. Shaun convinces the rest of them they need to make their way to the Winchester, the bar Shaun and Liz always went to for "dates", which was the reason they broke up in the first place. Shaun argues it's because the bar has a gun, namely a Winchester lever-action rife. After a grueling journey to the bar (the five blend in with the zombies), they make it inside, board up all the windows, and are sure to not make any noise once in there to avoid attention. Ed makes the mistake of getting bored, so he begins making noise with the arcade machine located in the bar. Zombies begin breaking in, infecting both Dave and Dianne. Shaun, being British, is a terrible aim with the gun in the bar, missing most of his shots. After Dave and Dianne are killed, the three remaining make their way behind the bar, set it ablaze, and then to the basement of the bar, where they find out that Ed has been bitten, and eventually, zombified. Shaun, unable to kill his best friend, flees the bar with Liz through the cellar straight into the British Army. Shaun and Liz prove they're still human, and are escorted to safety. After Z-Day, Shaun and Liz are back to dating, while Ed is still "alive," zombified and kept as Shaun's "pet." Incredible. I really loved this movie. I think it was my first Edgar Wright movie, and it's not only a fundamentally great movie, but it's a ton of fun to watch. I'm still confused whether or not this is connected to "Hot Fuzz" and "The World's End" somehow, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. 9.5/10I think the best kind of horror movie is one where horror isn't the main aspect. Where there are genuinely scary and suspenseful parts, but most of the time it's setting up plot points and you're having a good time watching it. "Zombieland" achieves this beautifully. It's funny and unique, but still saves room for the freaky, gory violence that comes standard with zombie movies. This is my personal go-to horror comedy. I love the jokes and the sentimental bits, because the movie blends them together to make the characters seem as real as possible.
The movie follows Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg, as he makes his way to Columbus to hopefully find his parents. Along the way, he runs in to Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson, who pairs up with Columbus until they reach a point where they need to split up to go to their destinations. The two run into Little Rock and Wichita, played by Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone, and the four eventually make their way to Pacific Playland, slaughtering everything that could have been considered dead at one point. At the end of the movie, rather than them going their separate ways, the group stays together and continues traveling the U.S. as the most dysfunctional family in recent history. I think a lot of people know how I feel about a lot of action movies. Bland, pretty cut and dry, probably the single most overused genre of movie ever (Marvel movies especially). However, that does mean there are going to be exceptions. Ilya Naishuller's 2021 film "Nobody" is one of these exceptions. The film opens following Hutch Mansell, played by everyone's favorite lawyer Bob Odenkirk. It goes through every day of the week. Monday through Friday for two weeks, it shows how Hutch lives a cyclical life and goes through the same routine every week and every day respectively, each collage of scenes getting faster. One night, his home is broken into by thieves, who he eventually is able to hunt down and get revenge on, only to leave before he get what he came for. He becomes involved with the Russian mafia (wow who could've guessed), and goes after their boss and is eventually able to take him down along with the help of his father and brother, David and Harry Mansell, played by Christopher Lloyd and RZA, respectively. I don't know what it is about this movie, but I love it. I understand that looking at the trailers and the promos, it seems like it shouldn't be as good as it is. But Bob Odenkirk, being who he is, is able to make something out of nothing. One thing I really appreciate about this movie is how Hutch sets things up from the beginning (hiding the gun in the freezer at work), and also how the hits just feel so powerful, especially on the bus scene. This movie does a great job at action, because it incorporates a story and likeable characters into a movie that doesn't focus entirely on the action aspect, which is something a lot of movies don't accomplish. I will say this, though: Russians? Seriously? The Cold War was like 40 years ago we don't need to make every enemy Russians. 8.5/10I used to love this movie. I watched this a couple of times as a kid and I always thought Monty Python was peak comedy. Watching this movie now, I realize it's just fine. I get that it was groundbreaking when it came out in 1979, but a lot of the jokes either don't make sense to an American in 2023, or they became outdated and didn't land nearly as well as they did back in 1979. There's a couple good ones, however, and I am a fan of the general absurdity of the film, but it's just not as funny as my 53 year-old dad thinks it is. It's fine. It's not a great movie by today's standards, but I've definitely seen worse. The movie follows the birth, life, and death of a man who is consistently mistaken for the Messiah in Jesus' time. At birth, he's mistaken by the Three Wise Men. In adulthood, he's mistaken by an ever-growing group of followers that he is the Messiah through a series of misspeaks and blunders, and eventually ends up getting crucified by the Romans right next to Jesus. 6/10I'm really working my way through all 2 of Matthew Broderick's popular movies. Just kidding, did you know he was in "The Lion King" too? All joking aside, this is a great movie. The film's director, John Hughes, manages to make it a fun time, with some real romance and suspense sprinkled in there. I think the main reason it's such a good comedy is that is doesn't focus solely on the comedy. It's got heart and real emotion that isn't on display for a quick laugh. This is easily one of Broderick's best films, and a must-watch for anyone that thinks high school is for nerds. The film follows Ferris Bueller, played by Matthew Broderick, moving through a day in his life as a kid who hates high school. I never knew I could relate to a character this much. He plays sick for the ninth time, and tries to make the most out of his day off. He calls up his friend Cameron, who is actually sick, and tells him to meet him at his house or he isn't going to be friends with Cameron anymore. They meet up and plot to get Ferris's girlfriend, Sloane, out of school, and end up taking Cameron's dad's 1961 Ferrari California Spyder out to pick her up and spend the day driving around town. They make it to the art museum, a high-end restaurant, and even participate in a parade before they rush to get home, where Ferris's parents are still completely oblivious to the fact that he's skipped school 9 times during the semester. 9.5/10Ben Stiller's 1996 thriller/comedy "The Cable Guy" is a massive change in theme from Stiller's usual "films". The movie follows The Cable Guy and Steven's strange relationship, while Steven is trying to repair his relationship with his ex-but-not-really-ex, Robin. The Cable Guy, or Chip as his friends call him, begins to stalk Steven, and eventually, Robin. He follows Steven around, pretends to share interests, calls incessantly, and will show up unannounced to try and "hang out" with him. Jim Carrey brings this role, like many, to another level. His obsession with Steven is downright terrifying and is one of his most engaging roles. I think everyone knows someone like the Cable Guy. Someone you know that thinks you're best friends when, in reality, you can't stand to be around them. This movie encapsulates and exaggerates this feeling, especially having Jim Carrey at the helm of it. He acts out and really makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and sympathetic for Steven. Despite the discomfort, I'm a big fan of freak-you-out films like this, where comedy is uncertain and the characters are just as, if not more, freaked out than you are. 8.5/10Short Sentence. Every important film blog starts with a short sentence. And then a longer followup sentence that leads into the main argument. The Lego Batman Movie was released in 2017 under director Chris McKay, known for movies such as "Renfield" and "The Tomorrow War." The film has a Monty-Python-esque comedy style built out of ridiculousness, with an even more similar joke-per-minute ratio, where all the jokes manage to land pretty successfully. I loved this movie. I saw it once when it came out, watched it again on Saturday and I was surprised at how funny it was. The story holds together, which is rare for modern children's comedies, and it's a genuinely good movie that's often overlooked because of the fact that it is aimed at a younger audience. 9/10 |
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