2021 Movie Reviews

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

Anyone seen The Green Knight yet? This looks like something that it might be worth going the multi-plex for.

It's not playing where I live. It's getting good reviews too.

[Jondalar]

8. Suicide Squad 2, grade A- = this movie is funny, gorey, and a real triumph for the DC Universe considering that the first Suicide Squad was a bad movie. It's packed with unique characters, good performances and I think most people are going to like this movie. This is the best I've seen Harley Quinn and it has great cinematography and action sequences. I hope James Gunn directs more DC films. I am going to rewatch this one.

[UnwindedDreams]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

8. Suicide Squad 2, grade A- = this movie is funny, gorey, and a real triumph for the DC Universe considering that the first Suicide Squad was a bad movie. It's packed with unique characters, good performances and I think most people are going to like this movie. This is the best I've seen Harley Quinn and it has great cinematography and action sequences. I hope James Gunn directs more DC films. I am going to rewatch this one.

Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams

Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.

THE Suicide Squad is not funny or fun. It’s nihilistic and visually repellent.


Meanwhile, here was my mini-review of the original superior film:

Suicide Squad (David Ayer): “You are looking for friends, I’m looking for leverage”: devious Viola Davis sums up divisive Politics 2016. This post-credits dialogue with Bruce Wayne also clarifies the spiritual-comic book underpinning of auteur-producer Zack Snyder and director Ayer’s approach to the conceit of supervillains doing good. Private longings unite this team, as explored in the members’ pop song-scored backstories. Ayer externalizes this longing in graphic-novel imagery that recalls von Sternberg films and Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry music (a karaoke performance of “Love Is the Drug” notably appeared in Snyder’s own Sucker Punch). Such bracing Romanticism climaxes in the final sucker punch landed by MVP Margot Robbie’s Joker-devoted Harley Quinn who refuses to kneel at the altar of power, remaining faithful to an idolatry of love.

2016 JOHNNIE AWARD WINNER: Best Actress (Margot Robbie)

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

THE Suicide Squad is not funny or fun. It’s nihilistic and visually repellent.


Meanwhile, here was my mini-review of the original superior film:

Suicide Squad (David Ayer): “You are looking for friends, I’m looking for leverage”: devious Viola Davis sums up divisive Politics 2016. This post-credits dialogue with Bruce Wayne also clarifies the spiritual-comic book underpinning of auteur-producer Zack Snyder and director Ayer’s approach to the conceit of supervillains doing good. Private longings unite this team, as explored in the members’ pop song-scored backstories. Ayer externalizes this longing in graphic-novel imagery that recalls von Sternberg films and Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry music (a karaoke performance of “Love Is the Drug” notably appeared in Snyder’s own Sucker Punch). Such bracing Romanticism climaxes in the final sucker punch landed by MVP Margot Robbie’s Joker-devoted Harley Quinn who refuses to kneel at the altar of power, remaining faithful to an idolatry of love.

2016 JOHNNIE AWARD WINNER: Best Actress (Margot Robbie)

I totally disagree. The first movie was terrible. This movie actually captured the spirit of The Suicide Squad. It also has the best depiction of Harley ever. Their are gross moments it was supposed to gross people out in a fun way.

[Jondalar]

11. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, grade A- = This is one of the better Marvel superhero movies. It has really good fight scenes, beautiful scenery and some very good side characters - Awkwafina steals the show. It's also just very charming and funny. My only criticism is it felt a little too Disney and was almost too light. I never really felt that any of the main characters could die.

[TrueFaith77]

ASPHALT GODDESS (LA DIOSA DEL ASFALTO)

In ASPHALT GODDESS, 21st century master filmmaker Julian Hernandez punctuates lesbian barrio gangster Ramira's (Mabel Cadena) castration-at-gunpoint threat with vertiginous camera angles: "Don't step out of line!" It flips the post-punk band the Au Pairs' classic challenge to hetero-patriarchy in the song/album "Stepping Out of Line" on its head. Hernandez dares to delve deeply into how masculine oppression and economic squalor warp feminine instinct by placing value on power over nurturing, berserk violence over artistic purgation.

Like the ice-woman cometh, the return of rock-'n'-roller Max (Ximena Romo) to her old stomping grounds--converted from a garbage dump into "more boxes" for people to live in--dredges up primal guilt and thwarted desire. The resulting brutality signals a title card that takes the audience back into the characters' past to chart cycles of violation and vengeance that take on the overwhelming force of fate as traced by Alejandro Cantu's unfettered camera and the Greek-Chorus of ginormous graffiti and illustrated t-shirts. "Cool, it feels good to breathe free air," Ramira says when released from prison only to end the day by unburdening herself from responsibility and from her humanity: "What's done is done.”

Hernandez's gangland film expressionistically conveys biological tribalism so that its vision keeps expanding from the personal to the social to the cosmic--blood oaths and revenge acted out as ancient ritual. With his existential elan, Hernandez transforms realism into classical Tragedy and epitomizes operatic filmmaking like nobody since Bernardo Bertolucci (a transformation akin to Morrissey detailing "sunlight thrown over smashed human bones" on "First of the Gang to Die"). Released in the U.S. direct-to-Netflix, ASPHALT GODDESS exposes the impenetrable border-wall maintained by America's hypocritical elite cultural gatekeepers. By the time Hernandez revitalizes the most famous scene from Shakespeare's MACBETH, one shudders to think of Steven Spielberg's upcoming descent into the ersatz-Shakespeare kitsch of WEST SIDE STORY while Hernandez's star-crossed Tragedy wails in isolation on television.

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams

Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.

I would say it's in the vein of the Evil Dead to a point, or maybe the Toxic Avenger. It definitely deserved an R rating. I really liked it but some people can't tolerate it. The movie is warped and has many cringeworthy, funny moments.

PS. Sharkman is fun. He grows on you and he does a lot of gross stuff.

[Jondalar]

9. Candyman, grade C - = (horror movie) starts out pretty decently but has three big problems. 1. It's not scary and it's a horror movie. 2. The ending is confusing and sucks. 3. It's anti police. On the other hand, the movie is nice too look at and uses shadow puppets for some of the visuals. I liked the actors. It also takes place within the arts world and that is interesting. It's not as good as the original and felt like a waste of time.

[Jondalar]

10. The Night House, grade C = (Indie, horror movie) About a woman who lost her husband and believes she is being haunted by his ghost. It's a low budget, well-acted horror movie that is intriguing until the very end. The ending felt a bit a forced and was confusing and I think it really hurt the movie. It also made me quite aware of how low budget this movie really was. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again. It's ok.