I love this movie. It has such an 80s vibe. Like a John Carpenter flick (including the synth music).
This and the Guest are both great throwbacks to that style.
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If I recall correctly, the chapter titles were used to further differentiate between the color scenes and the black and white scenes. “Fission” was for the color scenes while “Fusion” was for the black and white (or maybe the other way around; it’s been a minute) and it’s just implied that they just carry over when the corresponding scenes are playing.
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The Killer is…slow. VERY slow. Hell, it even admits it is. It’s not filled with too much action, it has a brawl or two, but it is by and large a cinematic take on what the waiting game looks like for an assassin.
I’m gonna be honest, despite all the people claiming that it’s Hitman-like, it really isn’t. Sure, it has the Killer use a disguise or two, as well as some social engineering to get into places. But everything else is wrong. Too talkative, too loud, and the entire plot starts because the Killer misses his sniper shot on his target and hits a civilian that was…er…dancing for their amusement, despite having better chances to shoot them, coming off as a show-off. Hell, even his thoughts are filled with pop-culture 47 would definitely not know about (casually referencing storage wars for example).
Just because they’re being stealthy does not make a pseudo Hitman movie make.
I will concede this is a better film that either the 2015 or 2003 film, but those aren’t large gaps to clear.
The film tends to favour “show, don’t tell” in places it really shouldn’t, and left me confused for half the runtime, and not in the “deduce and solve” kind of way.
Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and vibe with the narration of Fassbender. It’s a nice time, if a little clunky and the story is a tad unclear.
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It’s true. There is a good atmosphere and staging, but the storyline is basic and predictable. The character lacks charisma because he has neither a name (or code name) nor a background.
For visual purposes, here are some shots that we have already seen elsewhere…
The destinations are also familiar, since the character goes to Paris, New Orleans, New York, Florida and Chicago.
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I’ll still be watching it all the same. Love me some assassin movies. Second only to heists.
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Long Shot with Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron. I don’t know how I hadn’t seen it before. She plays the US Secretary of State who wants to be President and he plays a journalist who becomes her speech writer. It’s a romantic comedy, usually not my kind of flick; but it’s super funny and I really enjoyed it.
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I watched the killer earlier this week and I am damn disappointed about this movie, I wouldn’t mind the movie being slow since patience is key if it was worth it, the movie doesn’t reward you for patiently waiting, plot is mid, I could care less about the killer itself, he is a mid assassin and all of the kills in the movie were pretty basic (except for the nail gun kill, but not only the killer did not intented to kill him that fast, but it was a mid kill aswell), I could see the shit ton of inspiration it drew from the Hitman games but if anyone will try to debate who is the better assassin, the killer or 47, I’ll lose it because the killer is a mid assassin.
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Honestly I wasn’t a fan either, the dialogue was so cringe. I get that it was poking fun at the main character’s off-and-on ineptitude at points, but you could really tell that it was based on a comic book. The edgelord feel ran thick.
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Hold on, this movie tried to be comedic at some points?
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My dad and I just watched The Marvels in a special “ScreenX” format in theatres.
We’ve never heard of this before, but apparently it’s been around for a good 7 years at least.
It’s a special gimmick version of the film, yeah, where they project a whole 270° view of the film on the front and side walls of the theater.
It’s done through either a 3-camera setup during production or CGI in post.
It’s kinda cool? But yeah, mostly a novelty.
The illusion of the surrounding screen doesn’t totally work if you look to the side, as it’s meant to convey peripheral vision.
Plus, not all of the scenes use the ScreenX format, so it’ll cut or fade between the center and side screens, and it’s a bit disappointing when you’ve been treated to a wider shot. (The opening space scene and inciting event had a cool wide effect, but later on there’d be space scenes that don’t use the side-screens and it felt strange.)
Some of the action scenes and establishing scenery shots of the film used the added screen space and it was pretty cool, feeling like you’re surrounded or deeper immersed into the world, but as mentioned above, there wasn’t “consistency” in where its used.
I’d aay a good 60-70% of the film’s scenes use it though, and the entire climax had the side-screens turned on which was cool.
As for the film itself, it was fun. I liked it.
Not really the best ever, but it was of acceptable quality for what Marvel has put out lately.
Iman Vellani is definitely the standout energetic performance with a really great animated intro that calls back to her opening episode of Ms. Marvel… Really love that creative/artistic flair they give her “fangirl dreams” and I really wish it appeared more!
Brie Larson does a great job at showing more of Captain Marvel’s emotional side, since we were robbed of a lot of that in the last film due to her being a brainwashed stoic soldier. Though she does bring in some cool stoic, focused energy that I did enjoy in her character when in the group.
Teyonah Parris is the newcomer, essentially, to the group, as she learns more about her powers and offers some big scientific knowledge to the group where needed. I liked discovering she is essentially the Danny Phantom of the power-trio.
All their powers combined to give some very neat teleporting fight scenes as they’re forced to tap in and out of each others’ battles.
The movie gives the characters a kinda one-note villain but with interesting motives that evolve from the lingering conflict at the end of the first CapMarvel film.
I also liked all the exotic alien places the trio visits as
Overall, it’s a good entry to the MCU. I’d watch it again one day. There’s fun to be had here and I liked the cosmic scope of this film.
Plus, a very neat ending stinger…
Spoiler Time
- I felt so bad for the Khan’s house at the start of the film. Damnit, why the hell can’t superheroes just take the fight outside?? I liked how the whole family tried to step in and help beat the baddies though that was fun.
- The weird organic eggs found around the space station were a bit of an “oh god it’s a contrived hidden threat for later” but I quickly guessed and got right that it was Goose the cat laying eggs all around the place.
Totally gross but adorable hatching of kittens though! - And man, the whole Goose stuff in this film and the ensuing Cats Escape Pod master plan was soooo weird but in a fun way. It was ridiculous but I loved how creative they got in solving the horrible Titanic problem of “not enough escape pods”
- I was giggling so much at that fun ending, with Kamala parodying Fury at the end of Iron Man 1. I guess they’re finally giving fans hope that a Kid Avengers team might happen!
- Also, oooh, Monica is in the X-Men universe now! I wonder if this might tie into Deadpool 3 in some way, if that’s the start of the whole X-universe integration to the MCU…
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Anatomy Of A Fall (2023)
Hugely accomplished courtroom drama that was a really grown-up film about very believable, very flawed, very human characters. Accident Kill. Second best thing I’ve seen this year, behind the clear Film Of 2023 which is…
Saltburn (2023)
Has the most shocking bathwater scene since Connery electrocuted that goon at the start of Goldfinger. Pitch-black humour; Barry Keoghan putting in a performance every bit as good as his shining role in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer; and Rosamund Pike stealing the film every time she comes on screen. Fantastic.
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IMO she does this in everything they put her in.
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So, I just watched a new Adam Sandler animated children’s movie called Leo. It’s about these two class pets of a fifth grade classroom, a lizard and a turtle, voiced by Sandler and Bill Burr respectively. To my surprise, it was pretty good. It’s funny at times, has a good message behind it and is fairly stylistic. I haven’t been into a lot of stuff that Adam Sandler has done over the past decade and a half really, but this was very enjoyable and I recommend it.
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Sufficiently and surprisingly good at entertaining children has been my assessment of pretty much the latter half of Sandler’s directorial career.
His animated films tend to do better broadly because Sandler is smart enough to marginalise himself in those projects sticking to shared writing and production roles and being the leading man. In case of Leo he is one of around three writers credits and he only had to produce the film with the rest of Happy Madison as well as act of course.
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My wife’s parents are visiting us for Thanksgiving and we just watched the Equalizer trilogy today. It’s pretty much Jason Bourne meets John Wick, in a good way; it takes a lot of what makes both of those series work and blends them together, but makes the result its own. If you don’t like either of those series, this is a good alternative. Denzel Washington remains unique among Black actors in that he has the energy you expect from Will Smith, the intensity of Samuel L. Jackson, and the gravity of Morgan Freeman, all rolled into one. I have yet to see him in a role that he does not absolutely own, and he remains the actor with the most intimidating characters for the past 30 years. I wouldn’t be scared of Keanu Reeves, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson or even Jason Statham if they were interrogating me. Oh, I’d be scared of what they might do to me, but I wouldn’t be scared of them. Denzel scares the hell out of me. It’s that smile of his; even when he’s a good guy and is smiling what is meant to be a friendly smile, when those lips separate and those teeth shine through, I feel a chill. This is coming from a fan of the Joker, mind you. Overall, I would recommend the Equalizer films for anyone looking for a good vigilante justice flick.
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Which would you say is the best of the trilogy, or maybe the best plot/story/character wise and the best action wise?
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I’m gonna go with the second one, because of the final act. It was so much like a video game. The main boss at the top of the tower ready to snipe, the main character having to sneak around with three sub-bosses on the ground that you have to avoid and kill before addressing the final boss. Plus the investigation mystery at the heart of it and how it was personal. Yeah, I’d say the second is my favorite, followed closely by the third because of the Italian setting being a really good location (even though the bad guys were no challenge whatsoever), and then the first, mainly because of how closely it was to John Wick, which I would say is the better film, but the first Equalizer had better characters and better long-term motivations.
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This isn’t one I’ve only just watched, I’ve seen it before but not for a while.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 1.
Gosh, it’s cheezy, funny, scary, awesome, and overall a great homage to the coming-of-age-style origin of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
The CGI was probably okay for its time, but very dated today, especially the chase scenes with Peter in his Wrestling outfit. It practically looks like a blurry video game cutscene at times.
Special mention to Willem Dafoe as he really kills it as Norman Osborn/Goblin. You can really tell how he shifts between Norman being a desperate, angry, scared businessman, and when he goes full-tilt Wildly unpredictable as Green Goblin, full of flamboyant monologues and sinister pleasure.
Also on that note, I really noticed how Norman really gets fixated on Peter throughout the film, being way more fascinated and interested in bringing him under his wing and neglecting his son.
Really felt bad for Harry, even though he was kind of a jerk as he wooed Mary Jane right in front of Peter and clearly tried to impress her with money rather than his own person.
When I saw Spider-Man 2 again a few years ago before going out to see No Way Home, I think I remember that being a bit more of an enjoyable, typical action movie that had less strange cheesy moments like this first film had. (The weird Power Rangers-style fist-fights between Spidey and Goblin at the unity festival was one such scene.)
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Thanks! Great little breakdown. I always avoided these movies because they seemed like low hanging fruit cynical cash grabs. Maybe I’ll check em out.
I feel confident that I’ll still prefer the John Wick films, however.
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Netflix has limited theater screenings of their upcoming movie adaptation Leave the World Behind, written and directed by Sam Esmail.
Some friends and I went to see it tonight, and we had fun! Tense, unsettling fun, but fun!
(We were also the only ones in the theater which was wild! We could talk and jabber about the movie together all we wanted!)
It’s a great mystery-thriller, centering around a family that goes on vacation, only to cross paths with a mysterious man and his daughter, and then the world starts going haywire.
https://youtu.be/tvWUroNu61E?si=D061myE2EBac-AnA
It can be a pretty tense, nail-biting journey, as more and more strange things keep happening around the group, and the mystery keeps unravelling. But there’s a good payoff with a shocking/satisfying ending – at least in my opinion, for one specific plotline.
The movie is a great watch for some Mr. Robot fans too, as it’s got lots of little easter eggs that I apparently missed, though I did catch a few references.
It’s also got Sam Esmail and Tod Campbell’s unique filming style too, with lots of uneven & symmetrical framing and good tracking shots.
Mac Quayle also does the score again, with some great unsettling piano tracks.
Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali do some standout jobs. Julia’s character at first acting very standoffish and suspicious of the couple on their doorstep, before the insanity of what’s going on seems to make her do more and more irrational impulsive decisions. Mahershala has a fantastic mysterious air about him and is very candid and open about himself as the movie goes on – though always feeling like he’s got something to hold back.
It’s out December 8 on Netflix if anyone is interested!
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