2021 Movie Reviews

[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 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.

I've never heard of this until now. Thanks.

[Jondalar]

12. Malignant, grade B- = Can a move be saved by the ending? In the case of Malignant, James Wan's new horror movie, I think so. On the bad side, there is no character development and really not much happens but people getting killed for most of the first half of the movie. However, after about 65% of the movie is over, the movie turns into a pretty good action movie with a big reveal and I think it's enough to recommend the movie, However, be warned - some people hate this movie. (I can't reveal much about this movie because the big reveal is everything.)

[TrueFaith77]

Cry Macho (Clint Eastwood): The cock named Macho transforms Clint Eastwood’s humbly beautiful CRY MACHO into a fairy tale—the film *looks* like the Twilight of the Western. The cockfighting rooster externalizes the depth of masculine feeling in Clint Eastwood and young Eduardo Minett’s heartbreaking confessions that reveal their need for redemption and for belief (one monologue is delivered in a shrine to Our Lady). Significantly, both characters ameliorate their wounds by teaching each other to heal and tame animals (the dream of cowboys and horses that are the inheritance of the global pop audience). Doing so prepares them for precarious fates and uncertain reunions—Macho symbolizes hope. Rooted in the culture’s spiritual heritage, CRY MACHO is the most moving Western since John Ford’s masterpiece 3 GODFATHERS.