Posts in: Movies

This review of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum pretty much echoes my own feelings, especially this bit:

“But as masterfully executed as the action is, watching two-plus hours of mayhem without any palpable dramatic stakes, or nuance, or any emotion at all save bloodlust offers undeniably diminishing returns.”

Despite going into them with low expectations, I really liked the first movie, and especially the second, because as over-the-top as they were, there were pretty simple stories to follow, and Wick himself was sympathetic.

I found it much harder to understand the logic of Chapter 3, or to care much about the characters. There were a lot of good ideas, yet none of them seemed to add up to much. The action scenes were amazing, but without stakes, they started to feel gratuitous. Boring, even.

I’ll still be there if there’s a Chapter 4. If so, let’s hope the filmmakers can recapture the formula that made Chapter 2 so good: stakes + a clear goal + great action = a cracking good time.



Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - IMDb Great: Rami Malek’s performance, Queen’s music, and the excuse to watch a ton of Freddy Mercury videos on YouTube. (Dude could sing.) Meh: Predictable dialog and plot points. Feels like a biopic made from a checklist.

Rating: 6/10


Movie: Sherlock Holmes (2009) 🎬

This movie is a curious beast. There's much to like: It's beautiful, a gorgeous and gritty recreation of London of the late 1800s. The script is clever. It's got plenty of action. It's got Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes, and the script retains enough of the character and qualities of the Sherlock Holmes stories to satisfy the casual fan of the legendary detective. On the other hand... it's Sherlock Holmes as an action movie.

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Movie: Moneyball 🎬

So, I watchedΒ Rise of the Planet of the Apes the other night and I thought it was good. 3.5 out of 5 stars at least. Good story, decent acting, great effects. But as I watched it I was kind of thinking to myself that I'm tired of the modern action flick schtick. You know, where there's just this predictable cadence of violence and motion and effects stitched together with just enough story elements to make it appealing to a broad audience.

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